Companies agree to study chemicals complex in Saudi Arabia Kingdom seeking to build manufacturing based on oil, chemicals Saudi Arabian Oil Co. and Saudi Basic Industries Corp. are one step closer to building their first plant to process crude directly into chemicals, cutting out a link in the production chain from hydrocarbons to the finished products that go into plastics and other consumer goods. The state-owned companies will sign an agreement Tuesday to study such a project to be located in Saudi Arabia, Sabic, as the chemical maker is known, said in a stock exchange statement. Sabic said it entered the agreement after its own study of oil-to-chemicals projects. Oil companies normally refine crude into transportation fuels including gasoline and diesel and leave byproducts such as naphtha to be processed separately into chemicals. Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, is pursuing a plan to modernize its economy by […]