Saudi Arabia Finishes Fourth Strategic Oil Reserve

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Saudi Arabia finished its fourth strategic oil reserve in Madinah in late November. Madinah Gov. Prince Abdul Aziz ibn Majed attended the facility's opening ceremony on behalf of the sultan and the chairman of the Saudi Strategic Storage Program (SSSP).

The Madinah reserve was formally transferred to Saudi Arabian oil company Aramco in February. To build the reserve, the constructor removed 4 million tons of rocks and sand. The total length of the facility's underground tunnel totals 30 kilometers. An SSSP official said that during wartime, Saudi's enemies often target oil facilities. Any interruption of oil production will damage the kingdom's economy, weaken its military force and consequently impact the normal operation of the hospitals, industry and agriculture. Therefore, Saudi Arabia decided 20 years ago to build five strategic oil reserves across the country. The first three are located in Riyadh, Jeddah and Abha.

The Madinah reserve will enhance the kingdom's oil product distribution network. In addition, Madinah is close to the Yanbu refinery, making pipeline transportation of raw materials and products easy and cost-effective. The strategic distribution of the four reserves has proven to be useful and effective during times of market demand fluctuation and emergencies. In normal circumstances, the strategic reserves can provide added flexibility in the scheduling of refining facility overhauls without causing a fuel shortage and ensure the stability of oil products that many downstream industries require.

The new oil reserve will receive its supply from the Yanbu refinery through pipelines. Three types of fuels are stored here: gasoline, jet fuel and diesel. The reserve site is made up of a lubricant storage, a power station, a pumping station, service areas, a control building with auxiliary facilities and some ground support facilities.

Under the management of Aramco and in cooperation with other institutions, both domestic and international, tests were conducted in the three previous reserves to determine the specifications for products that are best suited for storage. Results from the tests show that stored products could maintain their specifications in the underground storage for longer than five years.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading marketing information services company for the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy-related markets throughout the world. For more than 24 years, IIR has provided accurate and timely intelligence through products such as plant and project information databases, focused market databases, industry forecasting, key industry contacts, industry and territorial map products, direct marketing services and applications, and daily industry news.