The facility, with a total annual capacity of up to 800,000 tons, will be the first in the Kingdom and the GCC to produce soda ash (sodium carbonate) and calcium chloride.

These products, currently being imported, are used in oil and gas drilling operations and the manufacture of glass and detergents.

“This is one of the strategic projects in the Kingdom,” said Abdulaziz Yahya Al-Muaiyyad, managing director and chief executive officer of ISACC.

“The project will make a significant contribution to the development of Saudi Arabia’s nonoil economy with all basic materials secured from mines within Saudi Arabia,” he added.

He said the project would provide the Kingdom’s requirements for soda ash and calcium chloride.

He said the company had fulfilled all requirements to start construction before the middle of next year.

Al-Muaiyyad and Bob Irvin, group vice president of Jacobs Engineering, signed the contract in Alkhobar.

ISACC is setting up a new entity — Jubail Inorganic Chemicals Industries Company — to run the new facility. It will be a public joint stock company with a paid-up capital of SR650 million. Fifty percent of its shares will be offered to the public early next year.

Al-Muaiyyad said the agreement embodies the common objectives between ISACC and Jacobs Engineering, which aims at benefiting from the long experience and expertise of Jacobs in the field of engineering services and project management.

The project has strong support from the Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ministry, Saudi Aramco and the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu.

Saudi Aramco has allocated the necessary gas and fuel for the facility, while the Royal Commission has allocated a 510,000 sq m plot of land for the factory at Jubail-II Industrial City.

The commissioning production run is scheduled to start by end of 2014 and commercial operations will follow in the first quarter of 2015. Work is currently under progress to secure all the other necessary utilities to run the project.

The industrial complex is viewed as an outstanding example of the progress being made in the development of Saudi Arabia’s nonoil economy and diversification of the Kingdom’s revenues.

The project will also contribute to the reduction of unemployment in the Kingdom by providing more than 800 job opportunities in the various facilities and plant services.

Irvin, while commenting on the deal, said: “This project is the first of its kind in the Kingdom and we are especially pleased that Jacobs Engineering has been selected to carry out the engineering services and management of the project since we fully recognize the importance of increasing the participation of the chemical industries sector in the national economy.”

Irvin added that Jacobs Engineering has vast experience in this type of industry, which will directly impact the success of the project.

Abdulbasit Andijani and Basel Abu Sharkh, technical consultants of the project, said the facility would be one of the most technologically advanced and a role model for this type of industry since it will use various modern technologies that protect the environment and conserve water and energy consumption.

Zahed Nawaz, financial adviser for the project’s founding investors, said advanced technologies would effectively reduce costs and raise the project’s profitability.

The Jubail Inorganic Chemicals Industries Company has already completed its feasibility and market studies, selected the technology and signed the necessary agreements to supply all of the raw materials and is now ready to commence work on the project.