(Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia said it may invest tens of billions of dollars in South Korea, as the kingdom bolsters ties with one of its main oil customers.

Saudi Aramco, the country’s state energy firm, also said a Korean company that its controls, S-Oil Corp., will push ahead with a $7 billion expansion of a petrochemicals refinery.

The announcements came on Thursday during a visit to Seoul by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He met President Yoon Suk Yeol and was then scheduled to see executives from some of Korea’s biggest companies, including SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung.

Saudi companies and the government signed 26 memorandums of understanding with Korean counterparts to cooperate on clean-energy projects at the kingdom’s new city of Neom, housing and transport, according to Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The pacts will be worth at least 100 trillion won ($75 billion), Seoul Economic Daily reported, without citing any sources.

S-Oil, 63%-owned by Aramco, will increase capacity at the Shaheen petrochemical complex at Ulsan in the south-east of Korea. Aramco has been making massive investments in recent years to boost downstream operations and secure long-term demand for its crude.

The world’s biggest oil company exports roughly 7.5 million barrels each day. Korea, China, India and Japan are its main buyers. 

“The global petrochemical landscape is rapidly evolving with demand growth anticipated to accelerate, driven in part by rising consumption from Asia’s emerging economies,” Aramco’s chief executive officer, Amin Nasser, said.

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S-Oil will build new facilities capable of producing 3.2 million tons of petrochemicals annually by 2026, according to Aramco. A steam cracker will make ethylene and other products used to manufacture everything from plastics to alcohol. There’ll also be a thermal-crude-to-chemicals refinery with a capacity of 46,000 barrels per day. S-Oil wants to more than double the chemical portion of its production to 25% by 2026.

--With assistance from Shinhye Kang.

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