Saudi Arabia’s Sabic said plans to build an oil refinery and ethylene plant at Dalian in northeast China were on track, after Chinese President Hu Jintao visited the industrial giant’s headquarters.

“It’s a refinery and petrochemical complex in which we will be responsible for the petrochemical aspect and the Chinese will do the refinery,” Sabic Chairman Prince Saud bin Abdulla bin Thunayan said after talks with Hu, who arrived in the booming oil producing country after touring the United States.
“It’s about $5.2 billion in cost, and if it is finalised it will be a major investment,” Prince Saud said.
A source at Sabic said the group’s share of the $5.2 billion deal had not yet been finalised. “It’s down to the Chinese to decide. We’re waiting for the Chinese to formally react,” he said.
Hu was on a three-day state visit to Saudi Arabia that underlines how important the kingdom and its oil are for China’s fast-growing economy.
Saudi Arabia was China’s top oil supplier in 2005, providing 17.5 per cent of its imports with 443,600 barrels per day (bpd).
The source at Sabic placed the group’s current expansion projects, excluding the Dalian Shide project, at between $25 billion and $29 billion.
Hu, who said on arrival that he wanted to deepen cooperation with Saudi Arabia, was accompanied at Sabic headquarters by Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al Naimi.
Naimi and Sabic officials were part of a large delegation headed by King Abdullah that visited China in January in a drive to develop Saudi Arabia’s trade links with rising Asian economies and diversify from traditional US ties.
Chinese sources have said Sabic was in talks with Sinopec, China’s top refiner and petrochemicals producer, over a separate one million tonne-per-year ethylene plant.