Page 6 - MEOG Week 49

MEOG PIPELINES & TRANSPORT MEOG

More issues for Aramco at Jazan

SAUDI ARAMCO SAUDI Arabia last week announced a pump beginning operations.
malfunction had occurred at Saudi Aramco’s Jazan has been the source of numerous head-
petroleum derivatives distribution station in the aches for Aramco. In the company’s annual
southern Jazan region in another interruption to report, which was released earlier this year, it
the state oil firm’s activities there. noted: “Saudi Aramco recognised an impair-
On December 2, Aramco said its technical ment of SAR13,646mn [$3.6bn] for the year
teams were “working around the clock to fix the ended December 31, 2016 primarily related to
technical malfunction as soon as possible, and the Jazan integrated petrochemical refinery
provide the petroleum products that the Jazan under construction and two existing domestic
region needs from the station without interrup- refineries.”
tion, as the supply of petroleum products has Delays were caused when the decision was
gradually returned.” taken to change the location of the refinery
Citing merely a ‘technical problem’, the com- under construction to make way for new export
pany reported on December 5 that it was back facilities.
online. “Works of loading oil derivatives for the Jazan will have a capacity to produce 209,900
station’s customers have resumed after the tech- bpd of ultra-low sulphur diesel, 71,400 bpd of 91
nical problem was repaired,” it said, providing no RON and 95 RON gasoline, 48,500 bpd of high
further details. sulphur fuel oil and 6,700 bpd of LPG, according
Jazan is home to a new 400,000 barrel per day to Aramco.
refinery, which is ramping up towards opera- Also located within the ‘Economic City’ is the
tional capacity. According to Aramco, the facil- Jazan Integrated Gas Combined-Cycle (IGCC)
ity will begin processing 200,000 bpd of crude plant, for which Aramco established the $8bn
before doubling that in 2021. Jazan Power JV last year to serve the refinery.
While on this occasion, the issue appears to The JV is 46% owned by Air Products, 25% by
have been a glitch, Aramco’s operations in Jazan ACWA Power, 20% by Saudi Aramco and 9% by
have been plagued by problems, most notably Air Products Qudra.
attacks from the Yemen-based Houthis, as well The private partners are carrying out a
as issues with changes to the facility’s design. design-build contract awarded in 2015 covering
In November, the Ministry of Energy said the air separation unit and oxygen supply facility
that Saudi security forces had foiled the attack – at capacity of 20,000 tpd of oxygen and 55,000
by intercepting and destroying two boats filled tpd of nitrogen billed as the world’s largest indus-
with explosives, though a fire broke out at the trial gases complex – at the 4,000-MW plant.
terminal’s floating hoses without any casualties. The remainder of the IGCC project is being
Aside from its proximity to Yemen, Jazan is executed on an EPC basis – with Italy’s Saipem,
also located far from Saudi Arabia’s oil produc- China’s Sepco and Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas
tion hub in the Eastern Province. winning the four main packages in 2014. The
As a result, cargoes of crude have arrived by new three-way JV will operate the gasification
sea, with around 4mn barrels understood to have and power assets for 25 years from completion,
been sent there in late 2019 ahead of the refinery which is scheduled next year.™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 49 09•December•2020