Saudi Arabia's PetroRabigh said on Monday it had awarded a construction contract for its Rabigh II expansion project to Italian oil service group Saipem.

PetroRabigh, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Japan's Sumitomo Chemical, said the total cost of the 30-month contract to expand its petrochemicals complex was SR782 million ($208.5 million).

The contract includes a plant to process and recover vanadium and a unit to dispose of caustic soda besides handling of some other facilities, a statement from the firm said.

The Rabigh II expansion project included an expansion of an existing ethane cracker and a new aromatics complex to process more than 2.7 million tonnes of naphtha a year to make higher-value petrochemical products.-Reuters