The biggest 25 refineries in the Middle East

The capacity of Arab refineries represents 8% of a global total refining capacity which today stands at 87.2million barrels per day (bpd), though they control more than 40% of the world’s proven recoverable crude reserve.

A recent report issued by OAPEC, showed that the Arab nations’ refinery input had increased by over 400 000bpd in recent years, and had reached 7.39 million bpd at the end of 2010.

According to the report, the refining capacity in the Arab world is expected to be increased by five million barrels each year to 12.425 mbpd by 2014. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait are expected to add the most incremental capacity, with Iraq following some way behind.

The new projects will increase refining throughput of the 10 OAPEC nations noticeably and is being driven by increased demand for refined products. These new refining additions are expected to cost a total of US$100bn, the organisation said.

“These projects will add nearly 5.03 mbpd to the Arab refining capacity, but they are beset with challenges and obstacles, which could lead to postponement or abolition of some of them, mainly those related to new refineries,” OAPEC said.

These obstacles include funding shortages and low investment returns. Refining ventures are not normally highly profitable. Another investment barrier may be the uncertainty surrounding refined good prices, which tend to deliver minimal margins compared to investment inputs, especially around periods of weaker global demand.

A legacy of perceived high engineering and procurement costs left over from the 2005-2008 period have also derailed some of the more ambitious projects, even though comparitive costs have since fallen.

1 Ras Tanura
Capacity: 550 000bpd
Location: Saudi Arabia
Operator: Saudi Aramco

Ras Tanura is the oldest refinery in Saudi Arabia, located on the eastern coast of the Kingdom. It came on stream in 1945 with a processing capacity of 50 000 b/d. Several units were added in the following decades.

Currently, it is considered as the most complex Saudi Aramco refinery with a crude distillation capacity of 550 000 barrels per day (bpd). Ras Tanura Refinery also has a 305 000 bpd NGL processing facility, a 960 000 bpd crude stabilisation facility, and 75 crude oil and products storage tanks with a combined capacity of 5.8 million barrels.

Ras Tanura Refinery’s major refining facilities include a 325 000 bpd crude distillation Unit, a 225 000 bpd gas condensate distillation unit, 50 000 bpd hydrocracker and a total of 107 000 bpd capacity of catalytic reforming.

Ras Tanura Refinery is the only Saudi Aramco refinery that contains a visbreaker. This refinery also produces 17 000 bpd of asphalt, more than any other refinery in the Kingdom. Crude is normally transferred to Ras Tanura through a pipeline and can also be supplied by ship. Most of Ras Tanura’s production is for domestic use and transferred to the Dhahran bulk plant, while some products are exported.

02
Mina al Ahmadi
Capacity: 442 000 bpd
Location: Kuwait
Operator: Kuwait National Petroleum Company

The Mina al Ahmadi Refinery (MAA) was built in 1949 as a simple refinery with a processing capacity not exceeding 25 000 bpd to supply the local market with its needs of gasoline, kerosene and diesel. The refinery is located 45 km to the South of Kuwait City on the Arabian Gulf.

Following the establishment of KPC and the restructuring of the oil sector, ownership of the refinery was passed from Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) to Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) which became responsible for the oil refining and gas liquefaction operations in Kuwait.

In the early 1980s, as part of an overall plan to upgrade the refining industry and expand the refineries, work started on two ambitious projects to modernise Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery, namely the MAA-Refinery Modernisation Project (MAA-RMP) (which was completed in 1984) and the Further Upgrading Project MAA-FUP (which was commissioned in 1986). Within the framework of these two projects, 29 new units were built.

The refinery has become one of the world’s modern refineries in terms of both refining capacity, which exceeds 460 000 bpd and the advanced technology it employs.

Mina al-Ahmadi Refinery Modernisation Project (RMP) was intended to provide the local and world markets with low sulphur content petroleum products, and to reduce dependence on gas as fuel, providing cheaper and more stable fuel to the country’s power generation plants.

The Further Upgrading Project (FUP) was based on more comprehensive view of the future of petroleum product markets in order to maximise profits and ensure a stable market for the three refineries output.

The project further sought to increase the share of light and medium products of the distillation process and minimise the share of fuel oil in the end output, resulting in a higher return from the crude oil refining processes.

The refinery now contains 29 new units, in addition to the old units, including the crude distillation units, the fluid catalytic cracking unit, the atmospheric residue desulphurisation units, the vacuum rerun unit and the sulphur recovery unit.

03
Ruwais
Capacity: 417 000 bpd
Location: Ruwais, United Arab Emirates
Operator: Abu Dhabi Refining Company (Takreer)

The Ruwais Refinery was commissioned in June, 1981, and was officially inaugurated in March 1982, located some 240 kilometers west of Abu Dhabi City. Soon after commissioning the original 120 000 bpd hydro skimming refinery in June 1981, plans were drawn up to add a 27 000 bpd hydro cracker complex that was started in 1985.

To consolidate operations, a general utilities plant, set up in 1982 to provide electricity and water for the area, was merged with the refinery in 1986.

In March 2010, Takreer signed contracts valued at $9.6bn for work to expand its Ruwais plant. The refiner signed two accords with SK Engineering & Construction and contracts with Samsung Engineering and Daewoo Engineering & Construction.

Takreer said that the project will serve 3 main objectives including satisfying the growing demand of high quality petroleum products in the local market as well as increasing ADNOC’s presence in the international market for finished products while meeting future stringent specifications.

He also added that integration with the petrochemical industry through exporting 1.1 million tonne per year of propylene to the Borouge Olefins Complex in Ruwais.

This will result in saving investment cost and reduce operating cost to the benefit of both operating companies. The process configuration consists of 21 major process units with supporting offsite and utilities units. Currently, Takreer produces liquified petroleum product, premium unleaded gasoline, naphtha grades, and many other products.

In June 2010 CB&I have been awarded a contract valued in excess of US$70 million by Daewoo for the propylene storage tanks for the Ruwais Refinery expansion project in Abu Dhabi. CB&I is expected to complete its remit in 2013.

04
Rabigh
Capacity: 400 000 bpd
Location: Rabigh, Saudi Arabia
Operator: Petro Rabigh

The Rabigh Refinery, located 165 km north of Jeddah and 185km south of Yanbu on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia, was commissioned in 1989. Rabigh refinery has a 400 000bpd crude topping facility.

Saudi Aramco assumed full control of the refinery and associated facilities in June 1995. The refinery was constructed by the Italian company Snamprogetti based on licensed and non-licensed “open-art” technologies.

The refinery was a basic topping refinery (a refinery that only fractionates the crude oil into constituent products and does not include any conversion processes for upgrading low value, heavy oil products).

The refinery was originally designed to process 325 000 bpd and a de-bottlenecking exercise in 1998 resulted in an increase of crude processing capacity to 400 000bpd, making the refinery the largest single train crude distillation unit refinery in the world.

The main products are fuel oil, naphtha, and jet fuel. LPG and oil are used as fuel for the refinery while recovered sulphur is bagged and shipped. In 2003, Saudi Aramco decided to upgrade the refinery into a fully integrated petrochemical and refining complex.

It joined hands with Sumitomo Chemical from Japan, and established Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Company “Petro Rabigh” to operate the project which was inaugurated officially in November 2009.

This was Saudi Aramco’s first entry into the petrochemicals business. Petro Rabigh currently produces 2.4m t/y of petrochemicals products and 18m t/y of refined products.

05
Yanbu
Capacity: 400 000 bpd
Location: Yanbu, Saudi Arabia
Operator: Saudi Aramco

Like Rabigh, the Yanbu Export Refinery, is located on the Kingdom’s Red Sea coast. Saudi Aramco and China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) signed an MoU related to the development of the $10bn project to upgrade the refinery which is set to process 400 000 bpd of Arabian heavy crude and produces 90 000 b/d of gasoline, 263 000 b/d of ultra-low-sulfur diesel, 6 300 metric tonnes per day (mtd) of coke, and 1 200 mtd of sulfur.

It will use existing Saudi Aramco facilities to receive crude oil and export refined products. The project’s projected completion date is 2014.

06
Jubail
Capacity: 400 000 bpd
Location: Jubail, Saudi Arabia
Operator: Saudi Aramco

Located in Jubail’s industrial district Jubail refinery is currently undergoing a huge makeover. The existing refinery will be incoprporated into a mixed use integrated project by 2013.

Feedstock will come by pipeline from two giant offshore fields, Manifa and Safaniya. Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Co (SATORP) is developing the integrated project, which will have a processing capacity of 400 000 bpd, or roughly 20 million metric tonnes a year when completed by 2013.

The product mix of the full-conversion refinery will primarily consist of diesel and jet fuels. In addition, it will produce 700 000 t/y of paraxylene, 140 000 t/y of benzene, and 200 000 t/y of polymer-grade propylene. Aramco and Total will share the marketing of the refinery’s products.

07
Baiji
Capacity: 310 000 bpd
Location: Salahuddine, Iraq
Operator: North Refineries Company

Baiji is Iraq’s largest oil refinery with a nameplate capacity of 310 000 bpd and has two sections. The refinery, which operates is located 180 km north of Baghdad, but currently operates at around 70% capacity due to the lack of crude oil feedstock, frequent power cuts and the general infrastructure problems that Iraq is dealing with after eight years of war and conflict.

Baiji produces 11 million litres of gasoline per day, 7 million litres of benzene and 4.5 million litres of kerosene.

The refinery was subject to a terrorist attack in early February 2011. The blast damaged unit six, the hydrogen unit that feeds the refinery’s hydrocracker, and unit one, the north refinery’s distillation unit.

The refinery resumed normal operations in March 2011.

08
SASREF
Capacity: 305 000 bpd
Location: Jubail, Saudi Arabia
Operator: Saudi Aramco Shell Refining Company (SASREF)

SASREF is a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Royal Dutch Shell, and is located in Jubail, in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia.

The refinery has a processing capacity of 305 000 bpd and processes Saudi Aramco’s crude. “Crude is purchased from Saudi Aramco at the prevailing export price as per the time of delivery,” says Abdulhakim Abdullah al-Gouhi, SASREF president and managing director.

SASREF is a full-conversion refinery at maximum crude intake as it includes a hydrocracker unit, a visbreaker unit, and a thermal gas-oil unit (TGU).

“This leading edge technology further boosts SASREF’s international competitiveness as a firmly established pacesetter refinery,” he says.

The refinery produces a wide range of products with different specifications, meeting the requirements of the different markets it targets.

“We produce many products that meet the specifications and the requirements of our clients, for instance, we produce naphtha, gas oil 0.5% and 500ppm along with bunker fuel oil that meets Asian specifications,” says Al-Gouhi.

“We are working on producing gas oil 10ppm target to meet the Euro5 summer specification, as well as the Asia specification,” he adds.

09
Skikda
Capacity: 300 000 bpd
Location: Algeria
Operator: Sonatrach

The 300 000 b/d Skikda refinery, the largest in Africa, came on stream in March 1980. Its first naphtha exports were shipped in April 1980 and full capacity was reached later that year.

The plant can process 15m t/y of Saharan Blend, pumped through a 34-inch Haoud El Hamra to Skikda pipeline, and 300 000 t/y of sour crudes imported through the Skikda oil terminal which is linked to the plant by pipeline.

The plant, often running at more than 350 000 b/d, was built by Snamprogetti and Saipem under a contract signed in 1974. Its naphtha output consists of naphthenic grades suitable for re-formulation into gasoline.

A reforming unit and an additional storage tank, built by JGC/Itochu, under a $200m contract, to turn naphtha into 1.6m t/y of gasoline, were completed in 1993. Algerian Gasoline imports were then stopped. Exports of naphtha from Skikda have had 75% paraffins, compared to about 70% before the reformer was built.

The refinery has: two 7.5m t/y crude distillation units; a 9 000 b/d vacuum unit; a 30 000 b/d catalytic reformer; a 1 900 b/d isomerisation unit; a 380 000 t/y aromatics unit producing benzene, toluene and xylenes; and a 145 000 t/y bitumen unit producing road and oxidised asphalts. Naftec wants a hydrocracker at Skikda.

Sonatrach is currently renovating the refinery. In 2009, the Algerian NOC awarded Samsung Engineering a $2.6bn contract to upgrade the facility.

The upgrade operation is expected to increase the refinery’s annual production capacity from 15 million tonnes to 16.6 million tonnes.

10
Mina Abdullah
Capacity: 270 000 bpd
Location: Kuwait
Operator: KNPC

The refinery was first built in 1958 during the rule of the late Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, by the American Independent Oil Company “AMINOIL”. It was at that time a simple refinery that contained one crude oil distillation unit with a capacity of approximately 30 000 bpd. Mina Abdullah was transferred to KNPC in 1978.

The Refinery Modernisation Project, (MAB-RMP) was launched in mid 1980s, which was completed in late 1988 and officially inaugurated in February 1989. When it was completed, the refining capacity had been increased to more than 230 000 bpd.

Besides the crude throughput capacity augmentation, RMP-MAB also envisaged new dedicated product dispatch facilities and took into account integration with the existing MAB refinery and also with Mina Ahmadi and Shuaiba refineries.

Following Iraq’s invasion in 1990, the refinery approved a revamp project to remove the bottle-necks in the refinery utility system. This effort led to a significant increase in the plant’s refining capacity which is currently running at around 270 000 bpd.

11
Sitra
Capacity: 267 000 bpd
Location: Bahrain
Operator: Bapco

Also called Bahrain Refinery, Sitra is one of the largest in the Middle East and the oldest in the GCC.

The Sitra refinery has a processing capacity of 267 000bpd, processing 85% of the crude oil imported from Saudi Arabia. The feedstock is pumped from Saudi Arabia in pipelines extending 27 km over land and a further 27 km under the sea before reaching the northwest of Bahrain.

The refinery has five crude distillation units. The units upgraded comprised a mild hydrocracker, a catalytic reformer, a distillate hydrotreater and a visbreaker. Its configuration is geared for high middle distillate yield operation.

The refinery first opened in 1936 (initial production of 10 000bpd) and has undergone many upgrades including major projects in the early 2000s until its production reached around 250 000bpd.

“Due to the importance of the refining sector in Bahrain and the increase of domestic demand on refined products, the government has also created a refining master plan, which aims to increase the crude capacity of the refinery from the current capacity to somewhere between 350 000 to 500 000 bpd depending on final economics,” says Faisal Al-Mahroos, chief executive officer of Bapco.

“The feasibility study for the project has been completed internally last year, and since then a reputed international company is assisting the Bapco team in formulating the preferred configuration and the optimum size of the refinery.

Different upgrading technologies are under consideration,” says Al-Mahroos. Companies involved in the upgrade plan have not been made publically available.

12
Ras Lanuf
Capacity: 220 000 bpd
Location: Libya
Operator: NOC Libya

The Ras Lanuf Refinery is a topping and reforming oil refinery in the city of Ras Lanuf, Libya. It became operational during 1984 and produces fuel oil, gas oil, naphtha and kerosene.

It is part of a larger petrochemical complex which is operated by the Ras Lanuf Oil & Gas Processing Company (RASCO), a subsidiary of the National Oil Corporation.

In 2007, the decision to expand the refinery for the production of benzene, butadiene, and MTBE was made. For the refinery expansion, NOC concluded a $2bn contract with the Star Consortium, a joint company of al Ghurair’s subsidiary TransAsia Gas International and ETA Ascon Star Group’s subsidiary Star Petro Energy.

The expansion is expected to be completed by 2013, but with the current security situation and damage resulting from fighting and sabotage, all plans are on hold.

13
Shuaiba
Capacity: 220 000 bpd
Location: Kuwait
Operator: KNPC

Construction of the refinery started in 1966. It was the first refinery built by a national company in the region. In April 1968, the refinery was officially commissioned and the first shipment was exported to Japan a month later. Its initial refining capacity was 95 000 bpd, and in 1975 an expansion project was implemented and its refining capacity rose to 200 000 bpd.

The Shuaiba refinery process units were designed according to the most advanced technology and techniques available at that time. The refinery was capable of handling relatively high sulfur heavy crude oils which necessitate special processing technology.

Shuaiba Refinery is considered the world’s first all-hydrogen refinery at that time with full usage of hydrogen gas manufactured from natural gas in process units.

In 2007, KNPC awarded a contract Royal Dutch Shell to improve the performance of its ageing Shuaiba refinery. Currently, Shuaiba is operating at 200 000 bpd processing on a sustained basis. New plant facilities are being added to improve performance and comply with environmental requirements.

14
Mostorod
Capacity: 156 750 bpd
Location: Cairo, Egypt
Operator: Egyptian Refining Company

The Mostorod Refinery is one of two refineries operated by the Cairo Oil Refining Company, a subsidiary of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation. The refinery, which originally came on stream in 1973, is located in Cairo, Egypt.

Mostorod is a topping and reforming refinery with a nameplate distillation capacity 156 750 bpd. The refinery produces gasoline, LPG, naphtha, propane and fuel gas.

A condensate recovery unit has also been installed to produce condensate for local consumption. Upgrading projects at the refinery include an isomerisation unit to provide unleaded gasoline.

The project was completed in 1996. A new refinery, Citadel, is being built on land adjacent to the existing Mostorod infrastructure to boost domestic production further.

15
Aden
Capacity: 156 000 bpd
Location: Aden, Yemen
Operator: Aden Refinery Company

The Aden Refinery company is located in little Aden at al Buriqah district. The initial capacity of the hydroskimming refinery was 120 000 bpd, and process mainly Kuwaiti crude.

In the 1960’s, the facility was expanded to reach 150 000 bpd. In May 1977 the ownership of this refinery was transferred to the Yemen government and thus its name changed to Aden Refinery Company.

The refinery is designed to process high sulfur crude from various resources including the Middle East, North Africa, Russia and Iran, up to the mid nineties (1990’s) when domestic Mareb feedstock had replaced them and became the main crude available for refining.

16
Basra
Capacity: 150 000 bpd
Location: Basra, Iraq
Operator: The South Refineries Company

Basra Refinery is the second largest oil refining complex in Iraq. After being knocked out of operation by the Desert Fox invasion in 1998, it was rebuilt, and the refinery is operating at near capacity, which is approximately 150 000 bpd.

The refinery was designed to meet needs of southern Iraqi provinces and to produce byproducts for export.

The company is currently undertaking an expansion programme, and has signed recently an agreement with Shell Global Solutions to use its technology license for a sulphur recovery unit and visbreaker unit as part of the agreement.

The sulphur recovery unit is likely to enable the refinery to meet or exceed world standards for emissions whilst the visbreaking unit will help increase overall upgrading, building a future-proof solution for the long-term.

17
Laffan
Capacity: 146 000 bpd
Location: Ras Laffan, Qatar
Operator: Qatar Gas

Laffan Refinery, Qatar’s first condensate refinery started production in September 2009. The refinery has a processing capacity of 146 000 bpd and utilises the field condensate produced from Qatargas and RasGas facilities. It is designed to be one of the largest condensate refineries in the world.

It consists of process units including utility systems, distillation units, naphtha and kerosene hydrotreaters, a hydrogen unit and a saturated gas plant producing naphtha, kerojet, gasoil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

The refinery’s production capacity is 61 000 bpd of naphtha, 52 000 bpd of kerojet, 24 000 bpd of gasoil, and 9 000 bpd of LPG.

The company plans to double the capacity of the refinery to reach 292 000 bpd by 2015, and has awarded the FEED contract to Technip.

18
Nasr
Capacity: 142 000 bpd
Location: Suez, Egypt
Operator: Nasr Petroleum Company

Nasr Refinery is one of two refineries located at Suez, Egypt. It is a topping and reforming refinery with a nameplate distillation capacity of 142 000bpd. The refinery is the oldest in Egypt and in Africa having originally been built in 1913.

It was closed between 1967 and 1974 when it was restored and upgraded. It is owned by the Egyptian government through its Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and operated by its subsidiary, the El Nasr Petroleum Company.

An announcement has been made that the refinery is to be upgraded by adding a 40 000 bpd hydrocracker unit to crack fuel oil into middle distillates. Funding for the upgrade is expected to come from the European Investment Bank and the USAID Agency.

19
Al-Mex
Capacity: 140 000 bpd
Location: Egypt
Operator: Alexandria Petroleum Company

Al Mex Refinery is one of two refineries located in Alexandria, Egypt. It is a topping and reforming refinery with a nameplate distillation capacity of 140 000 bpd.

The refinery, which originally came on stream in 1957, is owned by the Egyptian government through its Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and operated by its subsidiary, the Alexandria Petroleum Co.

The refinery includes a crude unit, vaccum unit, catalytic hydrotreater, lubes unit and asphalt unit. It undertook several upgrade and expansion operations. In 1983 the vapour recovery unit was started to produce stabilised gasoline and LPG.

In 1989 the hexane and kerosene complex started with annual production capacity of 22 000 tonne hexane or 18 000 tonne treated kerosene under the license of IFP. In 1997 bitumen blending, oxidation and solidification unit started in operation to produce solid bitumen package in 25 kg blocks.

20
Messaid
Capacity: 137 000 bpd
Location: Qatar
Operator: Qatar Petroleum

The 100%-owned Qatar Petroleum Refinery started as a small topping plant in 1958, and has grown over the years into a giant refinery organisation, successfully making Qatar self-sufficient and export-oriented in refined oil and petroleum products.

The main activity of the refinery is to process crude oil and condensate into various finished products to meet domestic demand as well as for export. The main finished products are liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), petrochemical naphtha, premium gasoline, super gasoline, jet fuel, diesel and marine fuel oil (MFO).

The need and concept of refinery’s major expansion was developed as far back as 1995 and the project was formally launched on 15 July 1998. Messaid refinery target products target mainly GCC, the Far East and Europe.

21
Mohammedia
Capacity: 128 000 bpd
Location: Morocco
Operator: Societe Anonyme Marocaine de l’Industrie du Raffinage “SAMIR”

Samir is Morocco’s sole oil refinery, located about 70km southwest of the capital Rabat.
The refinery has operated a topping refinery at Mohammedia site since the first crude unit was installed in 1959.

Since then, two more crude units, a vacuum unit and a lubes train have been installed to increase the refinery’s processing capacity. The upgrade of the Mohammedia refinery for a cost of $1.1 billion allowed the company to start producing 50 parts per million diesel in June 2009, adding an additional margin of $2 per refined barrel.

The hydrocracking unit, came onstream in August 2009, boosted margins by $5 a barrel. In 2008, Samir processed 5.7 million metric tonnes of crude.

22
Banias
Capacity: 125 000 bpd
Location: Syria
Operator: Banias Refinery Company

Built by Industrial Export of Romania, this plant came on stream in late 1980 after an official inauguration in August 1979. The refinery units include CDU, VDU, catalytic cracker and hydrotreater. It produces mainly gasoline, diesel, VGO and fuel oil. In 1994, a catalytic cracking unit and 25 000 b/d hydrotreater came on stream.

Its last upgrade was completed in January 1994, when a new catalytic cracking unit and a hydrotreater started operating. With a capacity of 125 000 b/d, the plant was designed to process a varied mix of feedstock, ranging from 100% Iranian light to half proportions of Syrian and Kirkuk crude oils.

Upgrading plans for the refinery included setting up another catalytic cracker with a capacity of 28 000 b/d, down from the originally planned 34 000 b/d.

23
Riyadh
Capacity: 120 000 bpd
Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Operator: Saudi Aramco

The refinery came on stream in 1975 with a capacity of 15 000 bpd. This was raised to 20 000 bpd in 1977. Work began in 1977 to raise the capacity to more than 120 000 b/d in a project completed in 1981.

The plant processes Khurais crude oil pumped through a 140 km pipeline. Riyadh has a vacuum column, which permits processing of the heavier crude fractions.

The refinery contains a 30 000 bpd hydrocracker, for upgrading of heavy fraction and also has a 30 000bpd catalytic reformer for upgrading naphtha to gasoline blending products.

Recently, Saudi Aramco launched its clean transportation fuels project at Riyadh, which aims to reduce the sulfur content of gasoline and diesel produced by the refinery to 10 parts per million, and to reduce the level of benzene in gasoline. Foster Wheeler-SOFCON won the FEED contract of the project.

24
Zawya
Capacity: 120 000 bpd
Location: Libya
Operator: Zawia Oil Refining Company

The Zawya Refinery is an oil refinery located in Zawiya, Libya, which is about 40 km west of Tripoli. The refinery was opened in 1974 and it currently produces an estimated 120 000 bpd. It is a topping and reforming refinery having a distillation capacity of 6 000 tonnes per annum.

The refinery is operated by the Zawya Oil Refining Company, a subsidiary of the National Oil Corporation. In 2006, the company announced plans to expand and rehabilitate the refinery to increase the processing capacity by 24%, which involve the installation of a new continuous catalytic reformer (CCR) unit, naphtha and gas-oil hydrotreaters and an isomerisation unit, as well as the installation of pneumatic control units and a supervisory control & data acquisition (SCADA) system.

The project has been in stasis since then. Libya was expecting to finalise the sale of a 50%-stake in the Zawiya refinery in 2010 as part of plans to help it meet rising domestic product demand. “We are looking for a 50-50 joint venture partnership for Zawiya refinery,” NOC, ex- chairman Shokri Ghanem said in 2010. Libya plans to sell the share in its second-largest refinery to an IOC as it seeks to upgrade and expand its domestic facilities.

25
Jebel Ali
Capacity: 120 000 bpd
Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Operator: ENOC

The refinery is operated by the Emirates National Oil Co (ENOC), which is owned by the Dubai Government. The refinery was inaugurated in 1999 with a total investment of $500m. In September 2010, ENOC completed an $850m upgrade at the Jebel Ali refinery.

It was aimed at increasing the operational capacity from 70 000bpd to 120 000 bpd. In 2010 the refinery processed 108 000bpd of crude at 90% capacity.

The ENOC plant converts condensates from Qatar, Iran and Australia into LPG, naphtha, jet fuel, diesel and fuel oil. The naphtha, a total of about 66 000bpd, is exported for petrochemical use in South East Asia, and the rest of the liquids are sold to the domestic market. Its storage capacity is in excess of four million barrels of condensate feedstock and petroleum products.

The FEED and engineering, procurement and construction management contract for the refinery upgrade project was awarded to Foster Wheeler. Al Futtaim Carillion was the contractor for civil works. GE Oil & Gas supplied a steam turbine power generation unit and eight compressors.