Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) on Wednesday announced a $3.1 billion crude processing project as its Ruwais oil refinery to help boost refining margins.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) on Wednesday announced a $3.1 billion crude processing project as its Ruwais oil refinery to help boost refining margins.
The engineering, procurement and construction contract for the crude flexibility project (CFP) was awarded to a joint venture between Korea’s Samsung Engineering and Netherland’s CB&I, ADNOC said in a statement.
The refinery modifications, scheduled to be completed by the end of 2022, will enable ADNOC’s Ruwais Refinery-West complex to process up to 420,000 bpd of Upper Zakum crude, or similar crude types from the market, freeing Murban crude, which commands a higher price on global oil markets, to be utilised for export sales.
Abdulaziz Abdulla Alhajri, director of ADNOC’s downstream directorate said: “Enabling the Ruwais Refinery-West to process Upper Zakum, or similar, medium sour crude, in place of Murban light sweet crude, will allow us to extract greater value from our crude resources. It will mean we can maximise the benefit of price differentials to enhance refinery margins, improve the middle distillate products and release valuable Murban crude into the market.”
ADNOC said the planned modifications will add an Atmospheric Residue De-Sulphurisation (ARDS) unit that will enable the refinery to process the Upper Zakum crude, or other similar crudes from the market.
The ARDS technology is extensively used in upgrading medium to heavy petroleum oils and residues to more valuable clean environmentally friendly transportation fuels and to partially convert the residues to produce low-sulfur fuel oil and hydrotreated feedstocks.
Source: Pipeline ME
