Yanbu Refinery

Yanbu refinery is located in Medina Province, in the western part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, on the shore of the Red Sea. Its construction was completed in 1983, and its gross and net refining capacity is 240,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

The refinery relies on vital and major facilities necessary to perform its operations. It includes four berths for loading fuel oil and marine diesel for shipments or ships, in addition to car diesel oil, regular and premium gasoline, jet fuel, kerosene, naphtha, and refined liquefied petroleum gas.

Yanbu refinery started its operations as part of Petromin (formerly Smark) projects, and produces liquefied petroleum gas, gasoline, jet fuel, diesel oil, and fuel oil. It is a hydroskimming refinery that is more complex than crude oil refineries, and most of its production targets the domestic market.

The refinery includes sulfur extraction facilities, which are among the largest of their kind in the world, with a capacity of ninety-five thousand barrels per day, and extracting 99 percent of sulfur. The refinery also exerts efforts to reduce pollutant emissions into the air through the establishment of a weather station that monitors the quality of ambient air, ensuring that its activities and level of emissions are in conformity with the standards.

The refinery also includes dual seals in twenty-nine tanks that reduce emissions into the atmosphere, in addition to a number of other projects that seek to decrease hydrocarbon emissions.

In line with Saudi Aramco's program for optimal operational excellence at the lowest costs, the Yanbu Refinery Department launched the Made in Yanbu Refinery initiative in 2016, which is based on the necessity to assess the need to hire contractors for activities that can be implemented through the refinery's own resources and competencies. The refinery started implementing the initiative in the sulfur handling unit, which is the most expensive work area.

That year, Yanbu refinery successfully repaired and rehabilitated the sulfur unit using its own resources, although the baseline plan proposed hiring a specialized contractor to perform the task, thus saving more money and enhancing internal capabilities.

In a precedent in the history of Saudi Aramco’s domestic refining business, Yanbu refinery celebrated the arrival of the first shipment of alkylate in 2016, which is a key material in the production of clean-burning gasoline.

In terms of gasoline production, Yanbu refinery achieved its production goal. After merging the refinery with Ibn Rushd Company in 2014, it began supplying the company with solvents at an amount of twenty-eight thousand barrels per day (equivalent to 92 percent of its total production of solvents). This reduced the refinery's production of gasoline from fifty-five thousand to 10.5 thousand barrels per day.

The introduction of alkylate in the types of gasoline produced by the Yanbu refinery enhanced low-value products, such as naphtha and purified materials (returned from Ibn Rushd Company) to significantly increase the level of gasoline production at the refinery.

Yanbu refinery won several awards during its years of operation, including the golden category of the King Abdulaziz Quality Award, its achievement of the 6-star category in the Certificate of Recognition of Excellence from the European Quality Management Facility, in addition to receiving the Diamond Category of Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award at its ninetieth edition ceremony for 2021, placing it at the forefront of distinguished facilities locally and globally.

Moreover, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Saudi Aramco, Eng. Amin Al Nasser, awarded Yanbu refinery management the 2017 Operational Excellence Award for implementing several initiatives that have resulted in significant improvements and the creation of high value assets.

Yanbu refinery management also won the Green World award, a global environment award, for the year 2018 by the Green Organization, making it the first refinery of Saudi Aramco to win the award. Moreover, it earned the first place recognition in the Corporate Sustainability category for King Khalid Award 2019.