Page 8 - DMEA Week 14 2022

DMEA FINANCE & INVESTMENT DMEA

Aramco’s Luberef planning IPO

MIDDLE EAST SAUDI Aramco Base Oil Co. (Luberef) is 550,000 tonnes per year to 1.2mn tpy.
reported to be planning to launch an initial The Group II base oils facility at Yanbu’ is by
public offering (IPO) of shares on the local Tad- far Luberef’s largest, with a capacity of 710,000
awul All Share Index (TASI), the Riyadh stock tpy. The facility is home to a hydrocracker and
exchange. units for wax isomerisation, hydrogen recovery,
Sources told Bloomberg this week said that sulphur recovery and gas treatment, as well as
the company has appointed a local subsidiary of a 40,000 barrel per day vacuum distillation unit
HSBC Holdings and SNB Capital to advise on (VDU) and a 12,500 bpd propane de-asphalting
the offering, which is seen raising in excess of unit.
$1bn. In early March, Luberef signed a memoran-
Luberef was formed in 1976 as a 70:30 JV dum of understanding (MoU) with Air Liquide
between Aramco and US super-major Exxon- Arabia to evaluate opportunities for the produc-
Mobil, before the American giant sold its 30% tion of green hydrogen using electrolysis fed by
stake to Jadwa Industrial Investment Co. in 2007. renewables at the Yanbu’ Industrial Basin. In a
The sources said that the plan is for the Jadwa press release, Luberef said the project would pro-
share to be listed. vide green hydrogen for its Lubricant Value Park
According to Aramco, “Luberef produces (LubeHub) project.
high-quality base oil at an optimised grade mix A month earlier, the Saudi firm’s CEO Tareq
from its two production facilities that are strate- Al-Nuaim signed a long-term agreement with
gically located in Jeddah and Yanbu’.” Alaa El Batal, his counterpart at the Egyptian
Following the 2018 commissioning of a $1bn General Petroleum Corp. (EGPC) at an event in
expansion of the latter, Luberef’s production was Cairo for the supply of essential oils for the local
more than doubled across its two facilities from market.™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 14 07•April•2022