PARIS—Saudi Aramco and French energy company Total S.A. have signed a memorandum of understanding to build a "giant petrochemical complex" in Jubail, Saudi Arabia.
The complex will be integrated downstream of the SATORP refinery, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Total, the French company said in a April 10 news release.
Saudi Aramco owns 62.5 percent and Total 37.5 percent of the SATORP JV in Jubail.
The $5billion investment will comprise a "world-size" mixed-feed steam cracker with a capacity of 1.5 million metric tons per year of ethylene and related high-added-value petrochemical units.
Front-end engineering and design is expected to start in the third quarter of 2018.
The cracker will feed other petrochemical and specialty chemical plants representing an overall amount of $4 billion investment by third party investors.
In total, $9 billion will be invested, in the project which will produce more than 2.7 million tons of high value chemicals.
This project, said Patrick Pouyanne, chairman and CEO of Total, will tap into low-cost feedstock to supply to the "fast-growing Asian polymer market."