The documents for the $6bn debt financing were finalised on 31 May, after having been signed and placed in escrow the preceding week.

The financing has been in the market since last October, following an initial public offering (IPO) of the project company in May 2007.

Getting legal completion on the financing is understood to have taken so long that the commitments of some banks expired earlier in the year. They did however, recommit on the same terms, despite the global credit crunch.

Arab Banking Corporation, BNP Paribas, and Samba acted as financial advisers and mandated lead arrangers with ABN Amro and HSBC.

The financing includes a 15-year $1.8bn commercial bank tranche, a $1.5bn export credit agency-covered tranche, a $1.5bn PIF loan, a $530m Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) loan and a $500m Kexim loan.

Margins on bank tranche are 65 basis points over London interbank offer rate (libor) rising to 75 basis points.

The Jubail-based Saudi Kayan complex is the largest single-phase integrated petrochemical project ever built, producing more than 6 million tonnes a year of chemical products.