Aramco to launch Sadara pilot operations in Q3

Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco) said it will launch pilot operations at its Sadara project in the third quarter, with all process units set to come on stream within one year of trial production, according to the company's annual review for 2014.

Sadara, a joint venture with the Dow Chemical Co., will operate with a capacity of over three million tons of diversified chemicals and plastics per year.

Moreover, Aramco’s Jazan refinery, scheduled to be commissioned in 2017, will have a processing capacity of over 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil to produce gasoline, ultralow-sulfur diesel, benzene, and paraxylene.

The state-owned oil giant expects to begin operations at its Wasit gas plant this year. It will process 2.5 billion cubic feet per day of non-associated gas from the offshore fields.

In a move to increase its gas output, Aramco said the Midayn gas field is expected to be fully operational by 2016.

In this field, two 98-kilometer pipelines will be built to deliver sales gas and stabilized hydrocarbon liquids to a solar plant owned by utility provider Saudi Electricity Co. (SEC) near Duba.

Expected to get into gear in 2019, Fadhili oilfield will process 2.5 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day from offshore fields, Aramco added in its report.

Other projects launched by Aramco late 2014 included the Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Co. (YASREF), which is designed to process Arabian Heavy crude oil from the Manifa field.

Aramco also expanded Shaybah oilfield through two major projects. The company first launched a 250,000 bpd oil production expansion increment, which will be completed by April 2016, and will provide the Shaybah field with a capacity of 1 million bpd of Arabian Extra Light crude oil.

Second is the construction of a new natural gas liquids recovery plant that was completed by the end of 2014. Production is projected to start in second quarter of this year.