Saudi Butanol Company (Sabuco), a joint venture of local petrochemicals firms, has started commercial operations at its plant in Jubail, one of the shareholders said on Sunday.

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 Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Company, Sadara Chemical Company, which is a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and The Dow Chemical Compnay, and Saudi Acrylic Acid Company (SAAC).

SAAC is an affiliate of National Industrialization Co (Tasnee) and Sahara Petrochemical Company.

The start of "commercial operations follows the successful testing of the butanol plant equipment and production efficiency in accordance with the technology licenses and implementation contracts," Sadara Basic Services Company said in a bourse statement.

Last year, Tasnee said the project was expected to start trial operations in the third quarter of 2015.

Estimated to cost around SR2 billion ($533 million) when announced in 2012, the project was expected to go on stream in the first quarter of 2015.   -Reuters