Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company’s (Takreer’s) Ruwais Refinery Expansion Project has not yet been handed over to the company’s operations arm after undergoing a $10bn expansion, according to a person with knowledge of the project, who is not authorised to talk to the media.

“The project is still in the commissioning stage,” he says. “It is expected to be formally handed over to the operations team in the coming months.”

Commissioning of Takreer’s project to expand the refinery was expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2014, but the scheme has seen significant delays.

Reasons for the delays are unknown.

The refinery was originally commissioned in 1981 and is located 240 kilometres west of Abu Dhabi city.

The expansion project was initiated in order to increase the Ruwais site’s refining capacity to 832,000 barrels a day (b/d), as well as increasing the quality of the refined products produced.

Under the expansion plans, when fully operational, it will produce unleaded gasoline, naphtha, aviation turbine fuel (Jet A1), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), propylene, kerosene, gasoil, bunker fuel, diesel, slurry to existing fuel oil and sulphur.

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