Saudi Butanol Company, a joint venture of local petrochemicals firms, is expected to start trial operations at its plant in Jubail in the third quarter of 2015, one of the shareholders said.

"Construction of the plant is ongoing ... Trial operations are expected in the third quarter of 2015," said National Industrialization Company (Tasnee) in a bourse statement.

Testing of the plant's performance will take between three and six months, it said.

The plant will have a capacity of 330,000 tonnes a year of n-butanol, a type of alcohol used to make other chemicals, and 11,000 tonnes a year of iso-butanol.

The project is owned by group consisting of Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Company, Sadara Chemical Company -- a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and The Dow Chemical Company -- and Saudi Acrylic Acid Company (SAAC).

SAAC is an affiliate of Tasnee and Sahara Petrochemical Company.

The project, estimated to cost around SR2 billion ($533.2 million), was expected to go on stream in the first quarter of 2015 when it was first announced in 2012. - Reuters