owned oil giant Saudi Aramco announced last month that it would offer stock in its planned joint venture export refinery in Yanbu. The Yanbu plant is one of three major Aramco projects to expand Saudi Arabia's refining network. Saudi Aramco and Japan's Sumitomo Chemical Co Ltd. will invest $6-7 billion to upgrade the Rabigh refinery and build a petrochemical plant. Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) also plans domestic expansion projects worth more than SR30 billion in the petrochemical sector. The petrochemical giant said recently that it would float 35 percent of shares of the National Petrochemicals Company (Yansab) in Yanbu for public subscription. Yansab, a new joint stock company established by SABIC, will supply four million tons of petrochemicals, including ethylene, propylene, polyethylene and ethylene glycol. SABIC is now in the process of establishing the company with a fully paid-up capital of SR5.625 billion.
