Aramco, ExxonMobil Launch $1.5bn Samref Revamp
State-owned Saudi Aramco and ExxonMobil are planning a $1.5bn overhaul of their 400,000 b/d Samref refinery in Yanbu΄. Applications for prequalification for the two part revamp are to be submitted by 24 March, MEES learns. Samref is looking for both phases of the project to be implemented simultaneously, industry sources told MEES.
The $700mn Phase 1 includes construction of a hydrogenation unit, a fluid catalytic converter, and revamp of the distillate hydrotreater. While the $800mn Phase 2 includes construction of a 40,000 b/d distillate hydrotreater, sulfur treatment units and hydrogen plant. Samref yield is 35% gasoline, 15% fuel oil, 30% heating and diesel, 17% marine and other fuel oil and 3% LPG. The plant mainly runs on Arab Light.
The Samref overhaul comes as Riyadh implements new product specs, with sulfur levels in both gasoline and diesel to come down to 10 ppm by 2013. Surging local demand means that Saudi Arabia will have a gasoline deficit by 2010, according to an Aramco presentation in Abu Dhabi last month. But new downstream capacity will bridge the deficit by 2013, said Mahdi al-΄Adil, a senior Aramco engineer at Ras Tanura refinery. The kingdom is also demothballing the 30,000 b/d al-Khafji refinery, which has been out of operation since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, MEES learns.
Copyright MEES 2008.