SABIC Agri-Nutrients will raise its urea production capacity by about 54% through a $3.47 billion fertilizer complex in Jubail, deepening Saudi Arabia’s strategy of converting competitively supplied natural gas into higher-value industrial exports.
The company has awarded South Korea’s Samsung E&A the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the SAN-7 project following a final investment decision on September 9.
Construction is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026, with commercial production targeted for the fourth quarter of 2030.
SAN-7 will add around 1.2 million tonnes of ammonia and 2.6 million tonnes of urea annually, lifting SABIC Agri-Nutrients’ total urea capacity from about 4.8 million tonnes to 7.4 million tonnes a year.
Samsung E&A said the new urea output is intended for export, positioning the project as a significant expansion of Saudi Arabia’s presence in global nitrogen-fertilizer markets.
The gas-fed complex will also incorporate post-combustion carbon capture, with captured carbon dioxide reused in urea production. SAN-7 remains a conventional ammonia-and-urea project rather than a blue-ammonia facility, but the system should reduce emissions intensity and improve resource efficiency.
For Saudi Arabia, the project represents a further shift towards extracting greater downstream value from domestic gas through fertilizers and petrochemicals rather than relying principally on upstream energy exports.
The commercial test, however, will come after commissioning. Fertilizer margins remain sensitive to gas prices, Chinese exports, crop economics and trade restrictions. SAN-7’s success will therefore depend less on headline capacity than on SABIC Agri-Nutrients’ ability to sustain high utilization and a low delivered-cost position as global nitrogen supply expands.
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