Samsung Engineering Wins Aramco Lubricants JV Expansion

South Korean group Samsung Engineering is to double the capacity of a Luberef oil lubricants refinery in Yanbu that is majority-owned by Saudi Aramco, two industry sources said.

Samsung competed against South Korean peer Hyundai Engineering and Construction, Italian group Saipem and Spanish company Tecnicas Reunidas for the project, seen costing $1 billion.

The financial terms of the bid were not available.

The sources told Reuters Samsung's win will include another package for propane de-asphalting (PDA).

A Samsung spokeswoman in Seoul declined to comment.

Luberef said recently that commercial production from the expansion will start in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Luberef, 70 percent owned by Saudi Aramco and 30 percent by Saudi Jadwa Industrial Investment, produces around 550,000 tonnes per year of oil lubricants at its two refineries on the kingdom's Red Sea coast at Jeddah and Yanbu.