PARIS, May 16 (Reuters) - Total TOTF.PA Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie on Friday estimated that a project to build a new 400,000 barrels per day refinery in Saudi Arabia will cost more than $10 billion.
Total had originally pegged the cost of the plant, in which the French oil major will have a 37.5 percent stake, at $6 billion.
“Jubail is a project at over $10 billion,” de Margerie told a shareholders meeting in response to a question on Total’s investment plans.
State oil giant Saudi Aramco said on Wednesday that it and Total would go ahead with plans to build the Jubail refinery, which it expects to start up at the end of 2012.
Reporting by Marie Maitre
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