Saudi Aramco and ConocoPhillips plan to construct a grassroots, 400,000 barrel-per-day, full-conversion refinery in the Yanbu Industrial City. The refinery is being designed to process Arabian heavy crude, which will be supplied by Saudi Aramco.
The refinery is expected to produce ultra-low sulfur refined products that will meet current and future product specifications. Saudi Aramco and ConocoPhillips will each be responsible for marketing 50% of the refinery’s production. The refinery is targeted to come onstream in 2013.
The companies have completed the initial evaluation and front-end engineering and design. The next phase will reportedly include the solicitation of bids, commitment of long lead items and site preparation work.
Khalid Al-Buainain, Saudi Aramco’s senior vice president for refining, marketing and international operations, said: We are pleased to be entering the next stage of development for the Yanbu export refinery project, together with our partner, ConocoPhillips. This facility will bolster Saudi Arabia’s refining capacity and provide additional quantities of refined products for global and domestic markets.
