Saudi Aramco and SABIC outline oil‑to‑olefins projects and refinery capacity expansions

authorities have highlighted in several press releases that Aramco and SABIC are looking at potential oil-to-olefins projects. The Kingdom has a proprietary technology that enables it to maximise the yield of olefins per ton of oil used. According to SABIC's management, this project has been carried out on a small scale at test sites and it is conducting feasibility studies at a larger-scale facility. Aramco has also highlighted plans in this area. While both companies declined to comment, Bloomberg highlighted that sources indicate they are assessing the possibility of embarking on a project together. Such a step would be the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia, with Aramco and SABIC working alongside each other on such a large scale. Refining capacity target: almost there The NTP aims to increase the refining capacity to 3.3mn bpd per day by 2020 from 2.9mn bpd today. Saudi has recently completed and launched two large refining projects with 400kbpd installed refining capacity each: (1) SATORP in Jubail launched in June 2014; and (2) YASREF in Yanbu — first shipment made in January 2015 and inaugurated in January 2016. In addition, it is building a new refinery, Jazan, which should process 400kb/d of Arabian heavy and medium crude oil; launch is expected in 2019. Table 26: Saudi Arabia government refining assets Name Location Completion Refining Saudi Aramco's Saudi Aramco's Partner capacity, kb/d share in capacity, kb/d ownership (%) Wholly-owned domestic refineries Jeddah Jeddah 1967 90 90 100% nla Yanbu Yanbu 1979 240 240 100% nla Riyadh Riyadh 1981 126 126 100% nla Ras Tanura Ras Tanura 1986 550 550 100% nla Total 1,006 1,006 Domestic refining JVs: SAMREF Yanbu 1983 400 150 50.0% ExxonMobil SASREF Jubail 1986 305 114 50.0% Shell Petro Rabigh | Rabigh 1990 400 150 37.5% Sumitomo (37.5%, free float 25%) SATORP Jubail 2014 400 250 62.5% Total (37.5%) YASREF Yanbu 2015 400 250 62.5% Sinopec (37.5%) Total 1905 914 Total in Saudi Arabia 2,911 1,920 International refining JVs: S-Oil South Korea 1991 669 424 63.4% S-Oil Motiva USA 2002 1070 535 50.0% Shell Showa Shell Japan 2004 445 67 15.0% Shell Fujian China 2007 280 70 25.0% Sinopec, ExxonMobil Total 2464 1096 Total capacity globally 5,375 3,016 Source: Saudi Aramco, Energy Policy, BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research Table 27: Saudi Arabia petroleum product output in 2014 (mn bpd) Saudi Aramco LPG Naphtha Gasoline Jet Fuel _ Diesel Fuel oil Asphalt Total ownership (%) Wholly-owned domestic refineries Jeddah 100% 0.9 2.9 4.0 0.0 24 9.2 6.4 25.8 Yanbu 100% 24 3:2 11.5 -0.4 29.3 30.9 0.0 77.0 Riyadh 100% 1.8 0.0 10.9 27 19.2 0.0 6.5 41.2 Ras Tanura 100% 5.0 15.0 43.9 78 76.1 32.5 7.2 ~~ 187.4 Subtotal 10.1 21.1 70.3 10.0 127.1 72.6 20.1 331.3 Saudi Aramco share in domestic JVs SAMREF 50% 1.1 0.0 25.0 11.1 18.8 14.4 0.0 68.2 SASREF 50% 13 11.7 2.2 9.4 14.2 13.3 0.0 52.2 Petro Rabigh 38% 1.3 13 6.9 49 11.7 13.4 0.0 45.5 SATORP 63% 13 3.9 WA 8.2 31.6 18 0.0 63.7 Subtotal 2.9 22.9 45.2 33.7 76.3 48.6 0.0 229.5 Total 13.0 44.0 115.6 43.7 203.4 121.2 20.1 560.9 Source: Saudi Aramco, BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research OS erartll Lynch GEMs Paper #26 | 30 June 2016 71 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_016181