Saudi Aramco and ExxonMobil Corporation have launched a $2 billion upgrade of their 400,000-barrel-a-day (bpd) oil refinery at Yanbu in an effort to meet US environmental regulations by 2013.

The Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery Company (Samref) has invited contractors to bid for an engineering, procurement and construction modification project, which will be carried out on a cost- reimbursable basis.
Samref is required to make the changes as part of rules introduced by the US’ Environmental Protection Agency in 2006, making it mandatory for refiners to reduce the sulphur content of the gasoline they produce.
The bulk of the kingdom’s refineries escape the legislation because they do not sell refined products to the US. However, Samref exports 46,000 bpd to the US, meaning it must comply with the rules.
The law change requires gasoline to have a sulphur content of less than 10 parts per million (ppm) and 1 per cent benzene by 2013. Diesel must have less than 50 ppm of sulphur by 2013 and 10 ppm by 2016.
The project is in to two phases, the first covering process units and the second offsites and utilities. The process unit package covers the creation of facilities, including a hydrogenation unit, which reduces sulphur from diesel supply, a splitter to divide naptha and a heavy naptha hydrotreater.
Other facilities include a 40,000-bpd distillate hydrotreater, a sulphur recovery unit and handling facilities, and a sour water stripper.