Beijing - Sabic and Sinopec have signed a strategic cooperation agreement to study opportunities for joint petrochemical projects in Saudi Arabia and China.

Under the agreement, the companies are planning -"for the first time" - to study a joint venture with Chinese investment in Saudi Arabia, the companies noted.

The agreement, which supports Saudi Vision 2030 and China's One Belt, One Road initiative, also seeks to explore opportunities for further investments at the existing Sinopec Sabic Tianjin Petrochemical Co. (SSTPC) joint venture.

SSTPC started up a 1-million-t/y ethylene cracker in Tianjin, China, in 2010, and in 2012 it began construction on a new 260,000-t/y polycarbonate plant at Tianjin, which was expected to begin operations in 2015.