Two banks have been appointed to senior roles for the financing of the $9.6bn Jubail refinery project.

Japan’s Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi has been appointed intercreditor agent, to act as the point of contact between the lending banks and the project sponsors.

France’s Societe Generale has been appointed as documentation bank.

The Jubail refinery is a joint venture of Saudi Aramco and France’s Total and is expected to be one of the biggest project finance deals of 2010.

Final allocations for the bank tranches have yet to be confirmed, but it is expected that the international bank tranche will be about $1.9bn, with an additional $1.7bn bank loan with export credit agency guarantees.

The Saudi bank tranche has yet to be finalised and its size will depend on a proposed local Islamic bond (sukuk) issue (MEED 18:12:09).