Dow Chemical plans Kuwaiti joint venture

Dow Chemical and a unit of Kuwait Petroleum have announced plans to form a new joint petrochemicals venture.

The Midland, Mich.-based Dow said it will receive about US$9.5 billion from Petrochemical Industries Co. for contributing five of its global businesses worth about US$19 billion to the joint venture. Those units contributed about a quarter of Dow’s 2006 revenue.

The joint venture will manufacture and sell chemicals used in products from plastic bottles, compact disks and computers to agricultural compounds.

The new company will give Dow access to OPEC member Kuwait’s crude oil supplies, and will have US$11 billion in sales at its inception, the companies said.

The venture, to be based in the United States, will make polyethylene, ethyleneamines, ethanolamines, polypropylene and polycarbonate, and employ more than than 5,000 people worldwide, the companies said.

“By selectively investing in downstream petrochemical businesses, we are maximizing the value of Kuwait’s hydrocarbons resources while diversifying our national economy and increasing job opportunities,” Saad Al-Shuwaib, chief executive of Kuwait Petroleum, said in a statement.