The Red Sea refinery, a joint venture between Saudi Arabia and China, is expected to be operational in Q3 2014 in Yanbu Industrial City, according to Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources
The Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Company’s (Yasref) 400,000 bpd refinery, a joint Saudi Aramco and Sinopec venture, is expected to process heavy crude from Saudi Arabia’s 900,000 bpd Manifa oilfield, the news agency Saudi Press Agency reported Saudi Arabia’s minister Ali bin Ibrahim Al-Naimi as saying.
Ali al-Naimi said, “Work at this new refinery is proceeding according to a specific schedule and will operate at a production capacity of 400,000 bpd during Q3 2014.”
The clean-fuels project is expected to reduce sulfur levels by more than 98 per cent in petrol in 2013 and in diesel by 2016.
The main products of the refinery are 3,000 bpd of benzene, 263,000 bpd of diesel, 90,000 bpd of gasoline, 6,200 tonnes per day of pet coke and around 1,200 tonnes per day of sulphur, Reuters reported.
Saudi Aramco has already started operating and exporting products from its new refinery in Jubail of the same size, which it shares with France’s Total.
