Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest oil producer, has signed deals worth an estimated $6 billion to build a refinery in the region of Jizan that will pump out up to 400,000 barrels of oil per day.

The state-run firm signed the engineering, procurement, construction contracts with Spain's Tecnicas Reunidas, Japan's JGC, Hitachi Plant Technologies,South Korea's Hanwha Engineering and Construction Corp, Hyundai Heavy Industries and Britain's Petrofac. While Saudi al-Ajmi company won a site preparation contract.

Aramco did not say how much the project was worth. However, industry sources told Reuters the overall construction cost of the nine packages for the refinery was around $6 billion.

Hyundai's contract was below $300 million, Hanwha around $600 million, Petrofac around $1.4 billion, SK and JGC around $1 billion each while Tecnicas Reunidas around $1 billion. Hitachi's contract was for around $500 million, the sources said.

The refinery will process heavy and medium crude and will provide feedstock for conversion industries and a 2,400 megawatt power plant that will feed the refinery and the Jizan economic city as well as cities on the western coast, Aramco's CEO Khalid al-Falih said in a speech at the contract signing ceremony.

The project will help generate 1000 direct and 4000 indirect jobs, he said.

"The refinery will be the nucleus for the Jizan Economic City and will play a major role in the development and will give it a competitive edge, which is translated in the feedstock availability for industries, power and fuel," said Falih. – Reuters