Yanbu, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Aramco and China Petrochemical Corp. (Sinopec) have agreed to the formation of a joint venture related to the ongoing development of Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Co. (YASREF) Ltd., formerly the Red Sea Refining Co. Sinopec will hold equity interest of 37.5 percent in YASREF, with Saudi Aramco holding the remaining 62.5 percent. Sinopec, the biggest Asian-owned refiner operating in Asia, is also Saudi Aramco’s largest crude oil buyer. The YASREF project involves construction of a new “grassroots” refinery on the Yanbu site covering over 5.2 million square meters. With construction well underway, the project is on schedule with 10 percent of construction completed. The YASREF refinery is scheduled to be operational in the second half of 2014. The refinery will process 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Arabian heavy crude oil and will produce high-quality transportation fuels. The refinery is set to have the capacity to produce 90,000 bpd of gasoline and 263,000 bpd of ultra-low-sulfur diesel, along with by-products consisting of 6,200 mt/d of petroleum coke and 1,200 mt/d of sulfur.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain