DUBAI - Saudi Basic Industries, the world's fourth-biggest petrochemicals firm, said on Sunday its joint venture project with ExxonMobil in the U.S. Gulf Coast has started commissioning activities and preparing for an initial startup.

The project includes the establishment of an ethylene production unit with annual capacity of about 1.8 million tonnes, which will feed two polyethylene units and a monoethylene glycol unit, it said in a statement.

SABIC expects that this project will have a positive impact on its consolidated financial statements after the commercial operation begins.

It supports SABIC's strategy to diversify its feedstock sources and strength its petrochemical manufacturing presence in North America for a wide range of products, it said.

(Reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore) ((Saeed.Azhar@thomsonreuters.com; +971 44536787; Reuters Messaging: saeed.azhar.reuters.com@reuters.net))