International law firm White & Case advised state-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Saudi Aramco) on its joint venture with China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec) to build, and operate a 400,000-barrel-a-day oil refinery in Yanbu, a port on the coast of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea.

The deal, which is estimated to be worth about $10 billion, was led by the firm’s New York-based partners Wendell Maddrey and Jason Weber, Hong Kong-based partner Hallam Chow, and Riyadh-based partner Waleed Al-Nuwaiser.

“We are pleased to have provided counsel to Saudi Aramco on this strategic initiative, which exemplifies Saudi Aramco’s commitment to meet the energy demands of consumers across the world,” Maddrey said in a statement.

Saudi Aramco will hold a 62.5 percent stake in the joint venture formed to develop Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Co (YASREF), while Sinopec will own the rest.

Saudi Arabia is the top oil supplier to China, accounting for roughly a fifth of its total crude imports. For state-run Sinopec, the venture with Aramco is its first refining project outside China. PetroChina, by comparison, has snatched a string of refinery deals beyond Chinese borders.

Aramco has already partnered with Sinopec at the Fujian plant joint venture in southeast China. The Saudi firm’s president and chief executive Khalid al-Falih said in a speech on Saturday that Aramco is in talks with Sinopec on investment in its Qingdao refinery in China, Reuters reported.

White & Case has a long-standing history of advising Saudi Aramco on similar transactions. The firm advised the company on a joint venture with Dow Chemical Co last year to build a $20 billion integrated chemicals complex in Jubail Industrial City in the kingdom. ALB

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