SABIC said on Tuesday it would build only one rubber plant project, in Jubail on Saudi Arabia's Gulf coast, instead of two as originally planned.

When SABIC and Exxon Mobil Chemical first announced the rubber project, they said the expansion would include the Kemya joint venture between the two companies and their other venture, Yanpet, which is based in Yanbu on the Red Sea coast.

But SABIC said in a bourse statement it would go ahead with only one of those ventures, since the Jubail location provides better synergies with the Kemya petrochemical facility.

The capacity of the project is little changed at more than 400,000 tons per year of carbon black, rubber and synthetic polymers for domestic and international sales.

SABIC said work on the detailed engineering designs had reached an advanced stage. It did not say what the cost of the project would be, although an executive from Exxon Mobil Chemical had said it would cost $5 billion.