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Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) has announced that its subsidiary, Saudi Methanol Company (Ar-Razi), has received approval from the kingdom’s Ministry of Energy for a feedstock allocation to build a greenfield methanol plant in Jubail, in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province.

The planned facility will have an output capacity of 1.8 million tonnes a year (t/y), Sabic said in a filing with the Saudi Exchange (Tadawul) on 6 September.

Sabic said it will announce any material developments related to the project, including the final investment decision, in due course.

“The project will strengthen Sabic’s methanol production portfolio and is aligned with the company’s strategy of focusing on its core businesses while strengthening the fundamentals of its operations and positioning the group for long-term growth,” the Saudi chemicals giant said.

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“The proposed facility in Jubail is expected to further support Saudi Arabia’s petrochemicals and downstream industries by expanding domestic production capacity and strengthening the kingdom’s position as a major global chemicals manufacturing hub,” Sabic said in its filing.

Before announcing the methanol project in Jubail, Sabic said it received approval from the Ministry of Energy in March for a feedstock allocation for a project to expand its urea production capacity by 54%, from about 4.8 million metric t/y to 7.4 million metric t/y.

The project, which is also planned for Jubail Industrial City, will be led by Sabic affiliate Sabic Agri-Nutrients and replaces a previously planned low-carbon or blue ammonia project with a conventional ammonia and urea facility.

The project will be Sabic Agri-Nutrients’ seventh plant in Jubail Industrial City, and will have a production capacity of about 1.2 million metric t/y of conventional ammonia and 2.6 million metric t/y of urea, the company said in a Tadawul filing.

The project, which was previously known as San VI, was slated to produce 1.2 million metric t/y of low-carbon ammonia and 1.1 million metric t/y of urea and specialised agri-nutrients.

READ THE SEPTEMBER 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

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Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the September 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes: