- JEDDAH: Saudi Arabian Fertilizers Company (SAFCO) has awarded a turnkey project to Italy's Saipem SpA to design and build a SR2 billion ($533 million) plant in Jubail, it said on Wednesday.
Production capacity at the new plant, which will be funded internally, is expected to reach 1.1 million tons of urea per year, SAFCO said. Construction will take 26 months.
"Commercial production is expected to start within the third quarter of 2014," the Saudi firm said in a statement on the bourse.
Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), the Arab world's largest chemical maker, holds a 42.9 percent stake in SAFCO which produces urea and ammonia.