Dubai, UAE — Hyundai has signed a $5 billion contract with Saudi Arabian energy giant Aramco to build a petrochemicals complex in the Kingdon, South Korea’s Land Minister Won Hee-ryong said, according to media reports.
Korean media reports said the deal, which will advance the Amiral project packages No. 1 and 4, is the largest contract won by a Korean builder with Saudi Arabia. Aramco is the owner of Amiral Petrochemical Plant.
Citing South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the reports said Korean-Saudi cooperation will take a further mutually beneficial turn, as underpinned by Korea’s expertise in construction and city planning helping the oil-rich country move away from fossil fuels.
The deal comes a day after Saudi Aramco and France’s TotalEnergies signed contracts to start building an $11-billion petrochemicals facility in Saudi Arabia.
A signing ceremony for the engineering, procurement and construction contracts for the Amiral complex took place at Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran, in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province.
The move “marks the start of construction work on the joint petrochemical expansion”, Aramco and TotalEnergies said in a joint statement.
Seven companies were awarded contracts for the construction of the project in Jubail, on Saudi Arabia’s east coast. The facility is slated to begin operations in 2027.
The project, first announced in 2018, represents an investment of around $11 billion, of which $4 billion will be funded through equity by Aramco and TotalEnergies.