Saudi oil minister confirms refinery integration plans

04 March 2014

Kingdom plans to integrate existing and new refineries with downstream industries

Saudi Arabia has given the strongest indication yet that Saudi Aramco’s new domestic refinery operations will play a large role in increasing the production of the kingdom’s petrochemicals sector.

Minister of Petroleum & Mineral Resources, Ali al-Naimi, told delegates at the Saudi Downstream 2014 conference today that the kingdom needed to integrate refineries with downstream operations in order to provide essential raw materials.

“We need to take the raw materials and ensure they travel down the value chain,” Al-Naimi said. “Our high quality refineries can link their products to other industries and we can attract the private sector to convert these products.”

MEED reported in September 2013 that Riyadh was planning to integrate its existing domestic refinery operations with downstream petrochemicals sectors.

A number of sites have been identified including existing refineries such as PetroRabigh and the Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Company (Satorp) refinery in Jubail. Other sites at Ras Tanura, Jizan and Yanbu, could also see as much as $70bn investment on new petrochemicals facilities.  

All of the facilities will use liquid feedstock from refineries such as naphtha and natural gas liquids including propane and butane. 

The minister also said that Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) was developing technology that would be able to create petrochemicals from crude oil and so bypass the traditional refining process.

A new facility was being planned for Yanbu which would be in partnership between Aramco and Sabic. The US’ ExxonMobil is the only company that is currently turning crude oil into chemicals at a plant in Singapore. The plant produces 1 million tonnes a year of ethylene.

MEED reported in November 2011 that the kingdom’s two largest companies had been in discussions for a new facility in Yanbu and various studies have been carried out over the last two years.

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