What carbon figure should a buyer of Jubail polyethylene ask for?
Polyethylene is not a CBAM good, so the request is for Scope 3. Ask for a cradle to gate figure per tonne of resin that covers ethane or naphtha cracking, polymerisation, steam and electricity, with the method and year. Do not use a generic European average for Saudi resin.
What the figure should include
- Feedstock extraction and processing up to the cracker.
- Cracking furnaces, which are the largest direct source.
- Polymerisation, steam, electricity and site utilities.
What to check
- Whether biogenic or recycled content claims are by mass balance, and how that is allocated.
- The allocation between ethylene and co-products from the cracker.
- The year and method, such as ISO 14067.
If the producer gives none
Use a published regional figure for the resin type and label it as an estimate in your Scope 3 total.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads supplier invoices into a dated, fingerprinted record and keeps each supplier's own figure beside the purchase it belongs to, so a Scope 3 total shows which numbers are primary data and which are estimates.
Sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard, ISO 14067:2018, Carbon footprint of products (iso.org), GHG Protocol Product Standard
Last reviewed 2026-10-21.