Saudi Aramco is examining potential upgrades to its 400,000 b/d Samref refinery at Yanbu as part of a major overhaul of its downstream operations. The joint venture refinery is owned 50:50 with US major ExxonMobil and, having started up in 1984, is one of the kingdom’s oldest refineries.
Samref processes up to 400,000 b/d of Arab Light crude and, despite being more than 40 years old, it has relatively low fuel oil yields of around 20%. Gasoline and diesel account for the bulk of the products output, alongside significant volumes of jet-kerosene (see chart). Samref was developed to export refined products to Europe, North America and Asia, and in late 2014 a clean fuels upgrade program was completed which reduced the sulfur levels in gasoline and diesel by more than 98% to 10 parts per million (MEES, 2 January 2015). (CONTINUED - 899 WORDS)
