Saudi Arabian Oil Co. and partner Sinopec Group plan to start a main refinery unit for making gasoline from crude at a joint venture plant at Yanbu on the Red Sea next year, people familiar with the situation said.

The partners will start the plant’s hydrocracker by mid-2015 and begin producing gasoline next year, said two people with knowledge of plant operations, who asked not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak with media.

Yasref, as the joint-venture refinery is known, will produce low-sulfur diesel for export and have the fuel available for sale next year, the people said. The lower the sulfur content in diesel, the cleaner it is as a transport fuel. 

Yasref’s diesel will meet European specifications, the people said. Yasref media officials were unable to comment.

Middle Eastern oil producers such as Saudi Arabia are expanding refining capacity to reduce costly imports of fuel needed to meet rising domestic demand and to produce cleaner-burning diesel that fetches premium prices in other markets like Europe. 

Regional fuel imports are mainly gasoline and diesel, while exports include jet fuel, fuel oil and naphtha.

Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates is doubling its largest refinery, the 400,000-bpd plant at Ruwais on the Persian Gulf. State-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. is pushing back the start of the new units being built there until the first quarter of 2015 at the earliest, two people with knowledge of the facility’s progress said.

Yasref will produce its first products sale in the fourth quarter this year, the people said. The first shipments from the plant, which is already processing Arab Light crude in test runs, will probably be naphtha, the people said. The plant on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast will have crude-processing capacity of 400,000 bpd. 

Saudi Aramco, along with partner Total of France, built a refinery of the same size at Jubail on the Persian Gulf. That plant, known as Satorp, has been running at its full capacity since Aug. 1, Total officials said.