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Refinery News Roundup: Focus on upgrading, launch in the Middle East

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As the new Al-Zour plant is about to be completed and KNPC has completed and launched CFP at its Mina al-Ahmadi and Mina Abdullah, the focus of the Middle East refining industry has been on start-up.

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At the same time, ADNOC abandoned plans to build a new refinery in Ruwais.

Refinery capacity b/d Country Owner Unit Duration Homs 107,100 Syria Homs Part Ongoing Mina al-Ahmadi 466,000 Kuwait KNPC Full 2022 Arak 250,000 Iran NIORDC Part Oct

Ruwais 837000 UAE Abu Dhabi National Petroleum Company expands 2022 Zarqa 102000 Jordan JPRC expansion 2020 Hittra 267000 Bahrain BAPCO expansion 2021 Basra 210000 Iraq SRC expansion 2025 SASREF 305000 S Saudi Arabia Aramco expands NA Abadan 360,000 Iran’s joint upgrade NA Abbas 320,000 Iran’s Bandar Abbas upgrade NA Tehran 250,000 Iran’s joint upgrade NA Tabriz 115,000 Iran’s joint upgrade NA Kasik 20,000 Iraq’s Ministry of Petroleum upgrade ongoing Arak 250,000 Iran’s NIORDC upgrade NA Isfahan 370,000 Iran’s NIORDC upgrade 2025 Petro Rabigh 400,000 Saudi Arabia Rabigh upgrade completed NA60000000000000000000 NPC upgrade NA66040Kuwait K completed NA60000Kuwait upgrade NA600000Kuwait NPC completed upgrade NA Sila 50000 Iran NIORDC expansion 2021 Bletilla 280,000 Iraqi Ministry of Petroleum expansion NA Qayyarah 20000 Northern Iraq reference upgrade NA Hadisse Town 16000 Iraqi government expansion NA H oms 107,100 Syrian Homs upgrade in progress Banias 120,000 Syrian Banias upgrade in progress Ecomar 22,000 UAE Ecomar expansion in 2024

Al-Zour 615,000 Kuwait KPC launch 2021 Duqm 230,000 Oman joint launch 2022 Duqm CBH 300,000 Oman CBH launch 2023 Jizan/Jazan 400,000 Saudi Arabia S Aramco launch 2021 NA 400,000 Iraqi State 1 NA NA 4 NA 0 Iraq NA 0 Southern Iraq No. 4 Iraqi Ra Bar 0 0 Iraqi Ministry of Petroleum launches NA Nassiriya 150,000 Iraqi Ministry of Petroleum launches NA Kirkuk 70,000 Iraqi Ministry of Petroleum launches NA Qayarah 100,000 Iraqi Ministry of Petroleum launches NA Kirkuk 12,000 Iraqi Al-Barham launches NA Kut 100,000 Iraqi Ministry of Petroleum launches NA Diwaniya, NA Iraq 70000 Iraqi Ministry of Petroleum launches NA Diwaniya, 7006 ADNOC launches 2025 Kuwait NA Kuwait KNPC launches NA Brooge 180,000 UAE BPGIC launches 2022 Mosul 150,000 Iraqi launches NA Anahita 150,000 Iran launches NA Zubair 300,000 Iraqi launches 2025 Condens, 0ref 2000 Refar 2000

** According to the company, Iran's Imam Khomeini (also known as Arak) refinery started an overhaul on October 9 and is expected to last 32 working days. The devices involved include isomax, gas purification, acid water purification, torches and the first stage of sulfur production. About 1,500 workers will participate in this project.

** Homs in Syria is undergoing staggered maintenance, which involves delayed coking unit 11 and coal unit and CDU 100.

** KNPC has postponed the planned major works of its Mina al-Ahmadi refinery until 2022. The project involving CDU was originally scheduled to be carried out in 2021. As part of the clean fuel upgrade project completed by KNPC in September, Mina al-Ahmadi is being integrated with the Mina Abdullah refinery into a single integrated facility with a capacity of 800,000 barrels per day.

** The 90,000 barrels/day distillation, visbreaking and liquefied petroleum gas part of Iran’s Isfahan Unit 1 started from July 25 to the end of September. He said that Unit 1 uses an average of 90,000 barrels of crude oil a day to produce liquefied petroleum gas, light gasoline, crude gasoline, light and heavy gasoline, and raw materials for the isomax unit. The visbreaking unit 1 requires approximately 21,000 barrels per day to produce liquefied petroleum gas, thermal oil, gasoline, and tar.

** According to a source close to the company, the clean fuel projects at the Mina al-Ahmadi and Mina Abdullah refineries in Kuwait were completed at the end of September and are now fully operational. The project involves modernizing the production capacity of Mina Abdullah and Mina al-Ahmadi and increasing them to 454,000 barrels/day and 346,000 barrels/day, respectively. The clean fuel project implemented since 2014 aims to merge and upgrade the Mina Abdullah and Mina al-Ahmadi refineries into an 800,000 barrels/day complex. Work on the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery will be completed in 2020. All of Mina Abdullah's installations were completed in the summer.

** Iran’s Imam Khomeini (also known as Arak Refinery) signed a 290 million euro technical agreement with the Petroleum Research Institute in July 2021 to produce 90,000 metric tons of needles per year after the start of the coking unit Coke. This move will help Iran to supply needle-shaped petcoke materials subject to sanctions. The sulfur content of the calcined needle coke can reach 0.55%. "With the preparation of the bidding documents and the selection of the project contractor in the next [Iran] first half of the year (September 2022), it is expected that the needle coke production of the Imam Khomeini Refinery will be from March to May 2025. It will start operations in December," said Ramezanpour, the general manager of the plant in Gholamhossein. In addition to producing needle coke, the project will "cut" the fuel oil output of the refinery from the current 10% to zero. As a result of the upgrade, the refinery will produce Euro 4 and Euro 5 gasoline and diesel. In 2019, the Iranian National Petroleum Products Refining and Distribution Company and the state-owned Iranian Mining and Mining Industry Development and Renovation Company (IMIDRO) signed an agreement to produce sponge and needle coke at the Abbas and Arak refineries. Both refineries are building coking plants.

** Seek approval from the Iraqi Council of Ministers to construct a 17,000 barrels/day reformer and a 31,000 barrels/day naphtha hydrogenation unit at the Basra Refinery, which will be part of the current upgrade of the plan. The two installations will be built by a consortium, which includes the State-owned Petroleum Project Company (SCOP) and the Czech company UNIS, with an estimated construction period of 43 months. The 70,000 barrels/day CDU plant in Basra is close to mechanical completion. Once online, the device will increase the refinery's capacity to 280,000 barrels per day. The Japanese contractor JGC has also begun preparations to start work on the FCC device. The project consists of a fluidized catalytic cracking unit (34,500 barrels/day), a vacuum distillation unit (55,000 barrels/day) and a diesel desulfurization unit (40,000 barrels/day). The project is scheduled to be completed in 2025. The project aims to convert excess fuel oil (45% of production) produced by existing refineries into lighter products.

** Iran’s Abadan refinery has reported its upgrade progress in July 2021. “The stabilization and expansion of the Abadan refinery is like a new refinery, standing next to the old Abadan refinery... and the old refinery will be refurbished,” Iran National Petroleum Products Refining and Distribution Research and Technology Director Mohammad Rezaie (Mohammad Rezaie) said. Shana, a news service operated by the Ministry of Petroleum, cited the news. The new plant includes all processing units. The modernization of Abadan will provide high-quality diesel that meets European standards. According to Mehdi Arami, expansion and stabilization project manager, “Given its 360,000 barrels per day production capacity, one of the other goals of the project is to reduce the output of fuel oil “from 40% to 25%. "At the same time, ordinary gasoline and kerosene will increase by 16% and 25% respectively. The second phase of the upgrade was launched in February 2017. The second phase includes the construction of an atmospheric and vacuum unit, as well as a gasoline, diesel, kerosene distillation unit, a sulfur unit and a catalytic unit. Cracking unit Abadan has a nameplate capacity of 400,000 barrels/day, aiming to stabilize its throughput at 360,000 barrels/day.

** Ecomar Energy Solutions has agreed to expand its refinery and build new storage capacity in Fujairah. The refinery capacity will increase from the current 22,000 barrels/day to 62,000 barrels/day. In the third phase of the expansion completed at the end of 2024, the inland storage capacity will increase more than five times to 1 million cubic meters. Ecomar's refinery will add an additional crude oil distillation unit to reach 2 CDUs.

** The goal of Iran’s Isfahan Refinery is to reduce fuel oil production to zero after the upgrade. Fuel oil currently accounts for 18% of refinery output. The plant has designed a desulfurization project to re-refine 81,000 barrels from the remaining distillation towers every day to produce lighter products.​​​ The project will be put into production in March 2025.

** The quality upgrade project for heavy-duty products in Bandar Abbas, Iran has been completed by 40%. The project is expected to include multiple devices such as solvent deasphalting, DAO purification, delayed coking, and calcining coking, as well as downstream devices such as the purification of naphtha and gas oil. Other units will produce and purify propylene, liquefied petroleum gas, tar, and hydrogen. The plant’s basket fuel oil output will be reduced to less than 10%, and the sulfur content will reach 1%.

** The 420,000 barrels/day condensate refining capacity of Iran’s Persian Gulf Star will increase by 60,000 barrels/day.

** Iran will accelerate the expansion and upgrade of the Shiraz refinery. The expansion was planned to begin in 2017 and was originally scheduled to be completed within three years, but it has slowed down due to sanctions. The first phase of expansion and upgrade will involve upgrading gasoline quality, and the second phase will involve upgrading diesel. The project will build an isomerization unit and diesel hydrogenation unit at an estimated cost of 300 million U.S. dollars. Shiraz's current production capacity is approximately 50,000 barrels per day. The expansion will add 26,000 barrels/day.

** Following a major upgrade project, Iran’s Tabriz refinery is expected to reduce its fuel oil production. The refinery currently produces 4 million liters/day (1.416 million tons/year) of fuel oil, which is mainly used as a raw material for tar. By about 2022, refineries are expected to reduce fuel oil output from about 25% of product output to less than 5%.

** The Kermanshah refinery in western Iran plans to increase its production capacity by 15,000 barrels per day and upgrade its product output. No target date for starting or completing work was given.

** A natural gas condensate project is under construction in Iran as part of eight planned 60,000 b/d condensate refineries around Silaf in Bushehr Province.

** The Syrian Ministry of Petroleum has a plan to achieve the highest possible production capacity at the Homs refinery.

** The Bahrain Petroleum Company’s goal is to phase out all fuel oil production by 2025 and focus on diesel and jet fuel. The $6 billion upgrade and modernization project for BAPCO's flagship Sitra refinery is now 60% complete. The plan will also expand the refinery's capacity from 267,000 barrels per day to 380,000 barrels per day. In the summer of 2020, BAPCO stated that due to COVID-19, refinery expansion has been postponed. The project was originally scheduled for 4 years and was originally scheduled to be completed in 2022, but the plan has changed.

** The Iraqi Minister of Petroleum laid the foundation for two installations with a total capacity of 20,000 barrels per day at the Hadesa Refinery in Western Anbar Province. These devices will increase the plant's capacity from 16,000 barrels/day to approximately 35,000 barrels/day. International companies will be approached to bid for an additional 35,000 barrels/day in the refinery, which will increase its total production capacity to 70,000 barrels/day.

** Iraq plans to repair and develop the Baiji complex north of Baghdad, where three oil refineries were destroyed during the war with the Islamic State Group. Currently, an oil refinery has a capacity of 70,000 barrels/day, the second 70,000 barrels/day facility and the third 140,000 barrels/day facility should be put into operation. The third refinery will restore the total capacity of Baiji Refinery to 280,000 barrels per day, making it once again the largest refinery in the country.

** Iraq’s Ministry of Petroleum announced plans to upgrade the country’s 20,000 barrels/day Qayyarah refinery, with the aim of adding a second 70,000 barrels/day production facility to bring the plant’s total production capacity to 90,000 barrels/day.

** According to the Iraqi Ministry of Petroleum, after the completion of an infrastructure modification at the Kasik refinery in the north of the country, Iraq has increased its refining capacity by 10,000 barrels per day. Restoration of the other 10,000 barrels/day CDU at the refinery is still continuing.

** Abu Dhabi National Oil Company reported in August 2020 that its Ruwais refinery's crude oil flexibility project, or CFP, had made “significant progress”, and the ongoing upgrade was “73% project delivery”. Upon completion in mid-2022, CFP will allow ADNOC to process up to 420,000 barrels per day of "heavier and more acid grade crude oil" in Ruwais.

** ENOC is currently undergoing a $1 billion expansion plan to increase the capacity of the Jebel Ali refinery to 210,000 barrels per day and meet Euro 5 emission standards. It signed a contract with Technip of France in September 2016 for the design, procurement and construction of a new 70,000 barrels/day condensate processing train.

** Saudi Arabia’s Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Company (Petro Rabigh) has awarded US-based Jacobs a contract called "Bottom of the Barrel." Add 15 chemical plants to the complex.

** Saudi Aramco plans to complete a US$2.5 billion clean fuel project at its Ras Tanura refinery. Work on the Ras Tanura Clean Fuel Project began in 2018.

** Saudi Aramco has signed a contract with KBR to provide technology, permits, basic engineering design and equipment for solvent deasphalting of its Riyadh refinery residue upgrade and clean fuel project.

** The American engineering company CB&I won a contract for the expansion and modernization of Sasref worth 95 million US dollars.

** Jordan Petroleum Refinery Co. has signed a contract with the US engineering company KBR to design a new residue hydrotreating unit as part of its expansion of its Zarqa refinery in Jordan.

** Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) stated that it has abandoned plans to build a new refinery in Ruwais. "Due to our early feasibility and pre-FEED studies, we concluded that the new refinery is not economically attractive at this time," a company spokesperson said. However, ADNOC stated that it is “fully committed to the growth projects of our downstream and industrial portfolios, with special attention to Ruwais’ natural gas and petrochemical projects”, adding that it sees “exciting opportunities for additional growth and expansion in these businesses. , In line with the strong market outlook for natural gas and petrochemical products.” Initially, the new refinery plans to process 600,000 barrels per day. ADNOC operates an 817,000 barrel/day refinery in Ruwais.

** According to a source close to the company, the construction of Kuwait's new Al-Zour refinery is expected to be completed in the summer of 2022. At present, 98% of the construction has been completed. S&P Global Platts previously reported that Kuwait’s new Al-Zour refinery will begin trial operation at the end of 2020. Al-Zour's petrochemical complex will be completed in 2023 and is expected to start in 2024. In addition, the engineering and technology company Technip Energies has won Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company) project engineering and management "Major Contract" (KIPIC) for various potential projects of the Al-Zour complex, including oil refineries , Petrochemical complex, LNG import facilities. The contract is for six years. KIPIC is responsible for the operation and management of the basic complex.

** The Baghdad Ministry of Petroleum stated that China's CNCEC will build an integrated oil refining and petrochemical facility in southern Iraq. The ministry said in a statement that the 300,000 barrels per day refinery will be built in Port Fao in the Gulf. It did not disclose when the refinery will start operations or what the cost will be. S&P Global Platts previously reported that the refinery will be provided under the construction and operation transfer or construction of its own operation transfer investment model. Petrochemical facilities can be integrated into the refinery at a later stage.

** Brooge Energy Ltd. stated in July 2021 that it has signed an agreement to sublease the land to Blue Ocean Energy FZE for 20 years and will build a 25,000 barrels/day modular refinery in Fujairah, UAE. Blue Ocean Energy will be responsible for building the refinery and financing the construction costs, while Brooge will oversee the operation of the refinery and earn revenue from tolls on a pay-as-you-go basis. It will focus on the production of VLSFO. Brooge Energy has previously stated that it expects its 25,000 bbl/d refinery in Fujairah, UAE, to be developed, constructed, installed and operated in the first quarter of 2022.

** The Iraqi Oil Minister has granted the consortium a permit to build a new 100,000 barrels/day oil refinery in Dhi Qar Province. The initial project envisaged a 300,000 barrels/day factory, but it was later reduced to 150,000 barrels/day, and then to 100,000 barrels/day. According to the statement, the refinery is expected to build a fluidized catalytic cracking unit and a catalytic reforming unit and other integrated production equipment, which will be able to produce refined oil that meets Euro 5 specifications.

**Iraq is expected to gradually open up the newly built Karbala refinery in the first quarter of 2022. The refinery will include 35 units and 44 storage tanks. There are also plans to build a new 70,000 barrels/day refinery in Qayara near the Qayara oil field in the north. In addition to these projects, the Ministry of Petroleum is seeking to encourage investors to fund "investment refineries" in several places, including Zubair and Fao in the south. Iraq is negotiating with Eni to build a 300,000 barrels/day oil refinery near the Zubair oil field operated by the Italian company in the south of the country. The first phase of the project includes commissioning of 150,000 barrels per day by 2025.

** Iraq plans to build a new oil refinery in Basra Governorate.

** The Iraqi Ministry of Petroleum is looking for investors for the 100,000 barrels per day refinery in Wasit Province, the 70,000 barrels per day refinery in Samawah Province, and the 70,000 barrels per day refinery in Kirkuk. It also added a 70,000 barrels/day plant in Diwaniya, Qadisiya province, south of Baghdad, and a new 150,000 barrels/day project will be built in western Anbar province. The 150,000 barrels/day Missan refinery has not yet started.

** Sonangol, the state-owned Angolan oil company, is working with the Iraqi Ministry of Petroleum to build a complex refinery in Mosul. The discussion between Sonangol and the ministry is about an oil refinery that produces 100,000-150,000 barrels of complex products per day.

** Canadian Pacific Future Energy was awarded a contract to build a 150,000 barrels/day oil refinery outside the town of Nassiriya in southern Iraq.

** The Duqm refinery project in southern Oman has now more than 80% completed. The refinery started construction in 2018 and is expected to start in 2022.

**The 300,000 barrels/day ultra-low sulfur fuel oil refinery project of the Canadian Commercial Holding Company in Duqm, Oman will process 230,000 barrels/day of residual oil from the Duqm refinery project of OQ and Kuwait Petroleum International, CEO of CBH Moses Solemon said. "The CBH refinery is a complement to the Oman-Kuwait refinery. Therefore, we are in synergy rather than competition," Solemon told S&P Global Platts. The company's goal is to enable the refinery to process the first batch of products by the end of 2023. The plant will use technologies that reduce sulfur emissions.

** The Jazan refinery in Saudi Arabia is accelerating construction but is facing regular missile attacks from the border with Yemen. This 400,000 barrels/day oil refinery, also known as Jizan, is located in the Red Sea, the southwesternmost part of Saudi Arabia, about 60 kilometers from the border of Yemen. Saudi Aramco has not officially announced production. It was previously expected that the project will be put into production at the end of 2019 and will be fully operational in the second half of 2020. It is expected that the primary distillation unit will be started from February to March 2021, and the secondary unit will be implemented later.

** Khatam al-Anbiya in Iran has begun construction of a 120,000 barrels/day plant to process condensate from the offshore South Pars gas field.

** Iran’s goal is to start the construction of the Anahita refinery in the western Kermanshah province, which aims to process 150,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

** Kuwait may build a new refinery in the south of the country, which may increase its production capacity by 130,000-160,000 barrels per day.

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