Shale and chemicals giant Ineos has joined France’s Total and Saudi Aramco in their plans to build a multi-billion-dollar petrochemicals complex in Saudi Arabia.

Under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in April, Aramco and Total committed to the construction of a petrochemical complex, called Project Amiral, which will see the duo spend $5 billion.

Ineos said on Monday it will join the pair and invest an additional $2 billion in building its first ever manufacturing plants in Saudi Arabia.

The companies aim to build three new plants as part of the Jubail 2 complex, including a 425,000 tonne acrylonitrile plant, a 400,000 tonne LinearAlphaOlefin (LAO) plant and associated world-scale PolyAlphaOlefin (PAO).

The three plants, expected to start-up in 2025, will produce the key building blocks for carbon fibre, engineering polymers and synthetic lubricants.

The investment is Ineos’ first in Saudi Arabia, and is a continuation of its growth strategy following the announcement of €3 billion ($3.3 billion) investment into a new plant at Antwerp, £1 billion ($1.2 billion) investment across the UK, acquisitions in China and capacity increases at its facilities in the US.

Jim Ratcliffe chairman of Ineos said: “The timing is right for us to enter this significant agreement in Saudi Arabia with Saudi Aramco and Total. We are bringing advanced downstream technology which will add value and create further jobs in the kingdom.”

The overall investment to built the Jubail complex is expected to be $9 billion, according to previous statements from Total and Aramco, which expect further parties to invest.

The complex will have total production of 2.7 million tpa of high-value chemicals between all facilities and will be integrated downstream of Total and Aramco’s Satorp refinery.

Total and Aramco plan on starting front-end engineering and design in the third quarter.

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Ineos joins Aramco, Total in Saudi Arabia