Saudi Industrial Investment Group and National Petrochemical Company have initiated talks to merge the two companies, resulting in an $11 billion petrochemical enterprise, according to Bloomberg. 

The companies said that discussions are still at an early stage and no agreement has been reached, yet.

Saudi Industrial owns 50% of National Petrochemical, and a full-blown merger was attempted nine years ago. As a result of this news, the companies’ shares climbed: the National Petrochemical’s shares closed at the highest level since 2014, giving it a market value of about $4 billion. Saudi Industrial ended 5.5% higher in Riyadh.

This is in direct response to the lower oil-price environment as Middle Eastern companies assess their options. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are all restructuring their operations.

There has been a wave of these types of mergers, with Saudi International Petrochemical completing a buyout of Sahara Petrochemical in 2019. In turn, that was followed by Saudi Aramco’s acquisition of SABIC earlier this year.