“We can see that total current in-Kingdom refining capacity
is 2.26 million bpd. With the addition of the three facilities, the capacity
will have increased ... in 2016 to almost 3.5 million bpd,” said Mohammed Al-Omair,
vice president of refining and natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionation.
Al-Omair also said the additions will come from the three
refineries whose development is now under way and which will have a capacity of
400,000 bpd each.
“The first is our joint venture in Jubail with Total
(Satorp), it will begin commissioning in 2012. Red Sea refining in Yanbu will
begin commissioning in 2014, and Jazan refinery in 2016, while each of the new
refineries will be designed keeping petrochemical products such as benzene,
xylene and paraxylene in mind. SASREF (Aramco-Shell Jubail refinery) is already
producing benzene.”
The 550,000 bpd Ras Tanura refinery alone supplies more than
30 percent of the Kingdom’s fuel demand. Aramco is upgrading the refinery to
produce cleaner fuels as part of a wider plan to meet environmental
regulations.
Al-Omair’s remarks, published in a Reuters report, came at
an industry conference in Manama.
The report said the Kingdom’s domestic fuel consumption has
been booming on the back of rising population and economic growth. Heavy
government subsidies on fuel, making the price at the pump a fraction of what
it is in the global markets, has also exacerbated the demand.
Saudi Aramco also considers building three new joint venture
refineries in Asia as part of plans to boost its global refining capacity by 50
percent to more than 6 million barrels per day (bpd), the chief executive of
Aramco, Khalid Al-Falih, said in April.
Asia is Aramco’s largest and fastest growing oil market.
“We continue talks about expansions. I am sure it will yield
results, but investments in the international (market) do take a lot of time
before we get to see things happening in reality but these are part of the
portfolio Saudi Aramco has as plans for the downstream investments,” Al-Omair
said when asked about an update on investments in Vietnam, Indonesia and
another refinery project in China.
Saudi Aramco operates refineries in the US, South Korea,
Japan and in China — the Fujian refining and petrochemical company (FREP).
The firm plans to balance its energy portfolio by increasing
exposure to downstream industries in its energy mix, while maximizing its
profits from existing oil and gas streams, its chief executive said this month
when signing a giant petrochemical joint venture with US Dow Chemical, called
Sadara.
“According to a recent study by Morgan Stanley in Europe we
see that many premier companies integrate their refining products, one as much
as 90 percent. We too, within Aramco, are striving to do the same within the
Kingdom,” Al-Omair said, citing plans of Rabigh II and the Sadara project.
The report said Saudi Aramco plans to use gas liquid and
refined products as feedstock in its new ventures. It is raising gas and NGL
output to cater to rising domestic demand for petrochemical feedstock.
