Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) has completed the acquisition of Royal Dutch Shell’s 50% stake in Shell Saudi Arabia Refinery (Sasref) joint venture in Jubail Industrial City for more than £500m ($631m).
Shell had brought several refining technologies into Sasref covering hydrocracking, distillation, hydrogen manufacturing and others.
Sasref has a production capacity of 305,000 barrels per day. Commercial production started in May 1985.
Since 1985, Sasref has been producing chemical feedstock naphtha, dual-purpose kerosene, gas oil, fuel oil, liquid petroleum gas, gasoline component Naphtha.
In the last 24 years, more than 200 million tonnes of products have been shipped via the export terminal.
Sasref uses two jetties at the terminal facilities at King Fahad Industrial Port
The refined products of Sasref are pumped via seven dedicated pipelines from the refinery to the Causeway Tank Farm where products are stored in separate tanks for last blending prior to export.
Sasref has the exclusive use of two jetties at the terminal plants at King Fahad Industrial Port.
The divesture is part of Shell’s focus on integrating its refining portfolio with Shell Trading hubs and chemicals operations.
The acquisition is part of Saudi Aramco’s long-term downstream growth strategy, which intends to strengthen the complexity and capacity of its refineries.
Saudi Aramco is a global integrated energy and chemicals company, which produces approximately one in every eight barrels of the world’s oil supply to developing new energy technologies.
Last month, Saudi Aramco reported first half 2019 net income of $46.9bn, compared to $53bn for the same period last year.
The company said that using its strength in upstream, it continued to deliver on its downstream growth strategy, including acquisitions in both Saudi Arabia and key international markets.
The acquisitions are anticipated to improve dedicated crude placement, increase refining and chemicals capacity.
Saudi Aramco also signed an agreement to acquire a 70% equity stake in SABIC which is among the world’s top petrochemicals companies by revenues.
