Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, King of Saudi Arabia, and China President Xi Jinping jointly inaugurated the Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Company (YASREF) Refinery during the premier’s visit to the Kingdom last week
Established in 2012, YASREF is a joint venture between Saudi Aramco, which holds a 62.5 per cent share, and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), which holds a 37.5 per cent stake in the company.
Saudi Aramco and Sinopec also signed a framework agreement for strategic cooperation to enhance the competitiveness of the crude oil supplied by Saudi Aramco to Sinopec and to actively explore cooperation opportunities in key areas including oil and gas services, refining, chemicals, crude oil supply, sales, petroleum services, petrochemical services, technology development and promotion, and new energy.
HE Khalid A. Al-Falih, chairman of Saudi Aramco, said, “China is the Kingdom’s largest trading partner and Saudi Aramco is proud to be China’s number one supplier of energy. YASREF, which is a partnership between Sinopec and Saudi Aramco, is part of Saudi Aramco’s strategy to expand and diversify its national and international investment portfolio.
“The MOUs signed between the Kingdom and China are evidence of the focused leadership of both countries to take the relationship to the next level.”
Amin H. Nasser, CEO of Saudi Aramco, added that YASREF was a win-win partnership with Sinopec and a key element of Saudi Aramco’s strategy of driving value across the hydrocarbons value-chain to maintain the Kingdom’s position as the world’s most reliable energy supplier.
According to industry sources, the facility, which embeds world-class technical standards, increases Saudi Aramco’s refining capacity and is an important step in our strategy to become the world’s leading integrated energy enterprise.
Sinopec chairman Wang Yupu noted, “YASREF will play a significant role in promoting the economic and trade cooperation between China and Saudi Arabia and in enhancing the long-standing friendship between the two countries. Sinopec possesses world-class refining and chemical technologies, strong engineering and construction capabilities, and developed a set of technologies on aromatics production that is both advanced and cost effective. We are delighted to further expand and deepen our cooperation with Saudi Arabia in oil and gas exploration and development, refinery and chemical technologies and engineering services and equipment production, to promote the mutual development of both economies and contribute to the well-being of our citizens.”
Located in Yanbu Industrial City on the west coast of Saudi Arabia, the YASREF refinery has the capacity to refine 400,000 bpd of Arabian heavy crude and produces over 13.5mn gallons per day of ultra-clean transportation fuels and other high-value refined products. YASREF has state-of-the-art refining facilities such as a distillate hydrocracker and hydrotreaters. It has capacity to deliver close to 100,000 barrels per day of clean, high-octane gasoline through a gasoline complex with an advanced continuous catalytic reformer.
