ALKHOBAR: The first fuel exports from a major new Saudi Arabian-Chinese refinery will load in December, slightly later than expected, three industry sources said.

The 400,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Co. (Yasref) refinery started trial runs in September and originally planned its first exports by November.

Yasref is the second refinery to start up in Saudi Arabia in the past two years, and will complete state company Saudi Aramco’s transformation into a leading exporter of diesel.

The shipment will be off-specification high sulphur gasoil, according to one of the sources.

The sources said it had faced some problems with commissioning, which is a normal when new refineries start up. The construction of the refinery was complete, the sources said, but more tests needed to be done.