Managed by the Royal Commission for Jubail & Yanbu, Yanbu Industrial City covers an area of about 185 million square metres, and there are plans to expand it to 605 million sq m.

Overall, the city employs about 55,000 workers, of whom about 44 per cent are locals. The Royal Commission said in a recent report that Yanbu accounts for 39 per cent of the contribution made by its three cities to Saudi Arabia’s GDP. As of the end of 2015, the commission said private sector investment in the city stood at SR232bn ($61.9bn).

The city’s port, King Fahd Industrial Port, is the largest oil shipping complex on the Red Sea, and has been operational since 1982. Almost 81.5 per cent of the city’s products are sold for export, comprising mainly liquid fuels or petrochemicals.

Recently completed projects at the city have included the $10bn, 400,000 barrel-a-day Yanbu export refinery, which opened in 2014. Improvements have also been carried out on the city itself, including a new desalination plant and the expansion of housing and infrastructure for residents.

Projects currently under way in the city included a $200m sugar refinery, a power station, a paraffin plant and a new oil terminal.