Saudi Aramco and Sinopec Group of China on Saturday signed a joint venture agreement to set up an oil refinery in Yanbu on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast.

The Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Co. Ltd. (YASREF) will begin production in the second half of 2014, processing 400,000 barrels of heavy crude a day. Saudi Aramco will hold a 62.5 percent stake in the plant while Sinopec Group will own the remaining 37.5 percent.

Saudi Aramco President and CEO Khalid Al-Falih and Sinopec Group Chairman Fu Chengyu signed the agreement at the Saudi Aramco headquarters in Dhahran.

The refinery is already under construction and will be spread over an area of 5.2 million square meters.

The cost should be within $10 billion including debt, Falih said, the Reuters reports.

For Sinopec, parent of top Asian refiner Sinopec Corp, the venture with Aramco is its first refining project outside China.