Near the border of Yemen, Saudi Arabia’s Jizan refinery’s work is continuing, however, it is expected that the refinery, a grassroot project, situated at the remote southwestern Jizan province, will take at least another nine months for its completion. The export-oriented 400,000 bpd refinery is significant owing to it being the first plant that the state-run firm will manage on its own, also it is Aramco’s biggest project where they are working without any partner. By the middle of 2018, Jizan may deliver a significant output to cater to the commercial expectation of the company.
According to sources, around 70,000 people will be engaged in phases with the development of the refinery and the economic city around it. The Jizan project was initially expected to involve some parties from the private sector. Later, Armaco took it up in 2010 from the Saudi Government.
Although Jizan is associated with a massive integrated facility covering around 16 sq km span of land, looking at the refinery from the technical angle, it may be categorised as a semi-conversion refinery that will be connected to the world’s largest gasification power scheme, which will make the current production capacity of the south of Saudi Arabia almost double. The gasification plant is designed to draw the vacuum residue from the refinery, which will be used to make fuel oil or coke, and create gas feedstock to run a massive 4 gigawatt power plant.