State oil giant Saudi Aramco and Japanese company Sumitomo Chemical have signed a contract for British group Petrofac to build two units for the Rabigh II petrochemical expansion project, industry sources said.

Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical have taken longer than expected to pick contractors for project, expected to cost around $7 billion in total, but deals have started to trickle through.

'Petrofac has won a contact to build two utility and offsite units for the Rabigh II petrochemical,' a Saudi Arabia-based industry source told Reuters on Monday.

Another source said the total value of the two contracts was around $500 million. Petrofac declined to comment.

Under Rabigh II, an existing ethane cracker will be expanded and a new aromatics complex will be built using around 3 million tonnes per year of naphtha to make higher-value petrochemical products.-Reuters