DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--Saudi Arabia Fertilizers Co. (2020.SA), or Safco, an affiliate of petrochemical giant Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (2010.SA), Thursday said it had awarded to Italy's Saipem S.p.A. (SPM.MI) the contract to build a new, large-scale fertilizer plant at a cost of 2 billion Saudi riyals ($533 million).

Under the turnkey engineering design, supply and construction contract, Saipem will build Safco's fifth fertilizer plant with annual capacity to produce 1.1 million tons of urea, Safco said in an emailed statement.

Construction is due to take 26 months starting Dec. 6, with commercial start-up scheduled for the third quarter 2014, Safco said.

Safco's shares Wednesday closed flat at SAR181 on the Riyadh bourse, which is closed Thursday for the weekend.

-By Oliver Klaus, Dow Jones Newswires; +9714 446-1693; oliver.klaus@dowjones.com

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