Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Co., or Satorp, said Tuesday its refinery complex at Jubail on the Persian Gulf coast is expected to be fully operational in the fourth quarter of next year.

"The oil in the first topping unit is scheduled for mid-December, 2012," Satorp said on its website. "Following that, all of the different units will come on stream one by one until the refinery is finally in steady-state of operations by mid-fourth quarter 2013."

Satorp, a company that is 62.5% owned by Aramco and 37.5% owned by France 's Total S.A. (TOT), is building a 400,000 barrel-a-day export refinery in Jubail.

The refinery complex, estimated to cost about $14 billion to build, is part of a drive by the world's top oil exporter to boost refining capacity by more than 1.7 million barrels a day from installed capacity of 2.1 million barrels a day now.

Last month, the company said it has selected three banks to arrange a planned Islamic bond, or sukuk, issue that will help it finance the complex.

Deutsche Securities Saudi Arabia, Samba Capital and Saudi Fransi Capital were chosen as joint lead managers and joint bookrunners for the sukuk, Satorp said.

The offering to Saudi investors, which earlier this month secured regulatory approval kicked off Sept. 10 and will last for 16 days. The total sukuk size could go up to 3.75 billion Saudi riyals ($1 billion).

The Islamic bond is the first shariah-compliant project sukuk instrument in the Arab world's largest economy.

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