Saudi Arabian Oil Adds Sulfur Recovery Units at Riyadh Refinery

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Dhahran, Saudi Arabia) is investing $100 million dollars to construct two 70 ton per day sulfur recovery units, plus the associated sulfur tankage, truck loading facilities, a new sour water stripper unit, and a new amine treating unit.

Saudi Arabia plans to improve the ambient air quality by reducing sulfur in diesel initially to 500 parts per million and eventually to 50 parts per million. Technip-Coflexip (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates) completed detailed engineering in August 2002. In addition, MAC Construction (Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia) will perform construction services for the sulfur recovery units and expects to complete the project by April 2004.

The Saudi Arabian Oil Company is one of the largest oil and natural gas liquids producing companies in the world. The company accounts for 98 percent of the petroleum reserves and 95 percent of the oil production in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco's refining sector consists of five local refineries, namely, Ras Tanura Refinery (325,000 barrels per day); Rabigh Refinery (400,000 barrels per day), which Saudi Aramco took full ownership of in 1995; Yanbu' (225,000 barrels per day; Jiddah (60,000 barrels per day), of which the private sector holds 25-percent; and Riyadh (115,000 barrels per day).