The Saudi/French joint venture Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Company (Satorp) has launched the offering for its $1bn sukuk to finance the development of the Jubail refinery.

The offering period for the sukuk will run from 11 September for 16 days, and a roadshow meeting with investors will be held on 13 September.

Germany’s Deutsche Bank along with the local Samba and Banque Saudi Fransi have been appointed to run the issue.

In total, the Satorp project will cost about $14bn to develop. Once the sukuk is in place, it is expected to be used to scale back the loans in a nearly $3.5bn commercial bank tranche of the project’s financing.