Aramco is preparing to connect new units at its 550,000 b/d Ras Tanura refinery on the Saudi Gulf coast under a clean fuels project (CFP) upgrade of the plant to produce Euro-5 specification fuels. Ras Tanura plant manager Fawwaz Nawwab expects units to be shut down during a 5-6 week period beginning 1 June and eyes CFP completion in 2021, according to a 24 February Reuters report. The overhaul, which will mainly reduce the sulfur content of produced transport fuels and convert all of the plant’s naphtha into gasoline additive reformate, will reportedly cost $2.4bn.
Ras Tanura’s initial feedstock processing is carried out in a 325,000 b/d crude distillation unit and a 225,000 b/d condensate splitter. The CFP contract, awarded to Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas in early 2017, adds three main upgrading units – a 138,000 b/d naphtha hydrotreater, a 90,000 b/d continuous catalyst reformer (CCR) and a 65,000 b/d isomerization unit – as well as utilities and offsites (MEES, 13 January 2017). (CONTINUED - 157 WORDS)
