The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz and President Xi Jinping of the People's Republic of China inaugurated today the project of Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Company (YASREF). Addressing the gathering, Minister of Health and Director of the Board of Saudi Aramco, Khalid Al-Faleh, described the inaugural ceremony a historical and unique as it would add a new edifice to the partnership between the Kingdom and China and expressed pride that Saudi Aramco is China's first supplier of oil. Al-Faleh said Saudi Aramco has first invested in Fujian refinery in China, an ideal project in all terms while the two parties are today dedicating a new venture in Yanbu, a project that has created 6,000 job direct and indirect opportunities. He disclosed that the working team of the project won Platts’s Construction Project of the Year in 2015.

He pointed that there is a good chance to create a qualitative leap in all aspects of cooperation in the field of energy, citing three areas: first: the development of economically feasible and sustainable investments in the field of refining and marketing, thus supporting China's strategy to achieve supplies security and doubling of Saudi petroleum to China, second: is based on building of partnerships between the two countries within the silk road economic zone initiative launched by the Chinese President Xi Jinping making the Kingdom a basic core of this initiative, and the third: focused on supporting the joint cooperation between the two countries in the fields of research, education, knowledge technology, innovation and cultural activities, noting that Aramco has opened a research center in Beijing while Sinopec lays tomorrow the foundation stone of a research and development center in Dhahran.

He pointed that the cooperation memoranda of understanding which were signed yesterday between the two countries' governments, build on those initiatives and embody the keenness of the two leaderships to push their partnership to higher levels, extending the most sincerest thanks to King Salman and President Xi for honoring the opening of this industrial edifice.