Petro Rabigh Phase II to start reliability tests in August

The second phase of Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Company’s (Petro Rabigh) mega downstream complex will start reliability tests on August 1, 2019, the company said in a bourse statement.

The reliability test stipulates that the project will operate for 90 days at a capacity utilization rate of 80 percent. 

Petro Rabigh is a joint venture (JV) between Saudi Aramco and Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical, with both firms holding 37.5 percent shares each and the remaining trading on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul).

The Petro Rabigh refinery complex in Rabigh is a topping refinery and consists of a 340,000 barrels per day (bpd) crude distillation unit, a 47,000 bpd hydrotreater, a 12 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) hydrogen plant, a 75,000 bpd naphtha merox unit and a 60,000 bpd kerosene merox unit along with supporting utilities, product tankage and a marine terminal.

The Phase II expansion will add 15 chemical plants to the Petro Rabigh complex, which will help the firm process an additional 30 million cubic feet a year (cf/y) of ethane and 3 million tonnes a year (t/y) of naphtha.