RIYADH, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Saudi Basic Industries Corp 2010.SE (SABIC) can adapt to any new petrochemicals supply that enters the market from outside the kingdom, its acting chief executive said on Monday, as Iran's release from sanctions promises increased supply on the global oil market.

Yousef Abdullah al-Benyan told a news conference in Riyadh that he wasn't sure about the state of Iran's petrochemicals industry but, in general, it takes between three and five years to come to market, start producing and then ramp up production.

He added that the compaby had begun cost-cutting in 2015 and it hoped to see the benefits of this programme in the coming year. It would also help SABIC to absorb a rise in feedstock prices announced by the government at the end of last year. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N14J05L

SABIC, one of the world's largest petrochemicals companies, announced a 29.4 percent drop in fourth-quarter net profit on Sunday, its sixth straight quarterly profit decline, as lower oil prices continued to drag on earnings. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1510KL

(Reporting by Marwa Rashad, Reem Shamseddine and Katie Paul; Writing by David French and Hadeel Al Sayegh; Editing by David Goodman) ((davidj.french@thomsonreuters.com; +971 4 362 5864; Reuters Messaging: davidj.french.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: SABIC RESULTS/