SOUTH PITTSBURG, TN — Colonial Chemical Inc. held a groundbreaking earlier this year for a new specialty chemicals manufacturing plant in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. The new facility is designated as Colonial Chemical M.E. Arabia and is a joint venture with Sadeem Investments and Earth’s Reservoir for Oil and Gas (EROG). 

Colonial Chemical Inc. is providing the technology and operations knowledge for the plant while Sadeem Investments and EROG are responsible for local operational oversight and construction support. The board of directors is comprised of David Anderson Sr, Colonial Chemical Inc., as the Chairman, and Mohammed Abduldaim, EROG President, as the Vice-Chairman. Other members include Dr. Peter Chetcuti, David Anderson Jr. and Douglas Wynn.

The operation will primarily provide a source of locally manufactured specialty surfactants and other chemicals for oilfield, industrial lubricants, water treatment, paper, paints, coatings, personal care, household, and industrial cleaning applications. The new plant will offer manufacturing technology capabilities for a variety of chemicals as well as toll blending capability for finished formulations and custom chemical manufacture. The plant will allow customers in Saudi Arabia and the region to achieve high local content levels required by localization initiatives such as IKTVA, NUSANED and NIDLP.

Construction is underway on a nine-acre plant that will include reaction vessels, distillation columns, toll blending and mixing vessels, pilot-scale equipment for development, warehousing and tank farms. Additionally, construction will include state-of-the-art laboratories for R&D and formulation development and administrative offices for supply chain and customer service personnel. The plant will also house packaging and labeling operations.

Manufacturing operations are expected to begin in the third quarter of 2022. Raw materials will be sourced locally to produce amine oxides, quaternary ammonium compounds, hydroxypropyl sultaines, betaines, propionates, ether carboxylates, imidazolines, phosphate esters, EPI-sulfonates and phosphates.

“Colonial Chemical has long been a significant provider for oil field service companies as well as products for personal care, household, and industrial cleaning applications in the U.S. The new operation in Dammam will take advantage of local sourcing throughout the value chain and position Colonial Chemical, M.E. Arabia as a preferential source of product and services for customers in that region,” said David Anderson, President, Colonial Chemical Inc. “Along with shorter lead times, Colonial Chemical M.E. Arabia will also offer the benefit of toll blending and manufacturing which is a highly desirable function in this market. We have built mutually beneficial relationships in the past few years with our local investors in this new operation and are all excited to see our plans move forward.”

Learn more about Colonial Chemical at www.colonialchem.com.