Saudi ArabiaSaudi Aramco is due to release soon tender documents for the long awaited lump-sum turnkey contract to install a new fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) unit at its Ras Tanura refinery. With a budget of $550 million, the project will be one of the largest to be tendered by Aramco this year.

No details have been released as to the capacity of the FCC unit, which is due to enter production by 2006. With total refining capacity of more than 106 million barrels a year, Ras Tanura is the second largest refinery in the kingdom after Rabigh.