# What carbon figure should a buyer of Jubail polyethylene ask for?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/jubail-polyethylene-buyer-scope-3-figure

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.

- [Resin emission factors](https://senseible.earth/answers/polymer-resin-emission-factors-pp-hdpe-pvc)
- [Jubail exports and CBAM](https://senseible.earth/answers/jubail-petrochemical-exports-which-need-cbam)
- [Mass balance claims](https://senseible.earth/answers/chain-of-custody-mass-balance-vs-segregation)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [ISO 14067:2018, Carbon footprint of products (iso.org)](https://www.iso.org), [GHG Protocol Product Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/standards)

Last reviewed 2026-10-21.