State oil giant Saudi Aramco is considering building a $20-billion refining and petrochemical complex at Yanbu on the Red Sea coast, industry sources familiar with the matter said.

The new refinery would have a capacity of 400,000 barrels per day and stand next to an existing refinery at Yanbu, wholly owned by Aramco, which has a capacity of 240,000 bpd and would also feed the planned petrochemical complex.

The sources said British-based Amec Foster Wheeler was expected to win the contract to execute front-end engineering and design work for the project.

The project, planning for which is still in the initial stages, would be completed in 2023 if it goes ahead, one of the sources said.