(ICIS) -- Saudi Aramco has signed a joint venture agreement with China's state-owned oil refiner, Sinopec, to build a 400,000 bbl/day refinery in Yanbu on the kingdom's Red Sea coast, the country's official news agency said over the weekend.
The project, named Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining (YASREF), will begin production in the second half of 2014, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said in a report on its website. YASREF will process Arabian heavy crude oil to produce refined products for the domestic and global markets, according to a separate statement by Sinopec.
The refinery will be able to produce 90,000 bbl/day of gasoline, 263,000 bbl/day of ultra-low sulphur diesel, 6,300 tonnes/day of petcoke and 1,200 tonnes/day of sulphur, Sinopec said. State-owned Saudi Aramco will hold a 62.5% stake in the refinery and Sinopec will own the remaining 37.5%, SPA said.
The cost of the project should be within USD10bn (EUR7.9bn) including debt, Khalid al-Falih, Aramco's CEO and president, was quoted as saying by Reuters at the project's signing ceremony.
Meanwhile, Saudi Aramco is planning to invest in capacity additions abroad as well as new refineries in Al-Jubail and Jizan and the revival of a plan to expand the refinery in Ras Tanura, the report said.