Aramco-Sinopec 400,000-bpd refinery starts test runs
AL KHOBAR, September 8, 2014
Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Co (Yasref) has started trial runs this month at its 400,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery, five industry sources familiar with the matter said.
Arab Light crude has been fed into the refinery complex in Yanbu, a joint venture between the world's top crude exporter, Saudi Aramco, and Asia's largest refiner, Sinopec, to start test runs, one source said.
Yasref's chief executive could not be reached for comment while another senior officer declined to comment.
The refinery will eventually process Arab Heavy crude from the giant Saudi Manifa oilfield and will produce 90,000 bpd of gasoline and 263,000 bpd of ultra-low sulphur diesel among other products, according to Yasref.
Downstream units at Yasref include a hydrocracker, two hydrotreaters, a continuous catalytic reformer and a delayed coker.
The test runs were in line with Yasref's schedule on its website for the first commercial shipment of refined products to be exported by November 2014, although this could be brought forward slightly to the second half of October, some trade sources said, depending on how smoothly test runs went off.
The refinery will export some naphtha initially as the operator tries to stabilise gasoline-making units, the sources said. Africa and Europe will be its target markets, they said.
The start of a second mega refinery in Saudi Arabia in as many years could swell an oil supply glut globally and further depress margins at refiners in Europe and Asia.
A 400,000-bpd refinery operated by Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Company's (Satorp) in Jubail, identical to Yasref, started commercial exports in September last year. The joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Total reached full capacity in the middle of 2014. -- Reuters
