YASREF

The recently registered Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Company or YASREF is a joint venture with Saudi Aramco retaining 62.5% equity share and China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) retaining 37.5% equity share in the company. It is located in Yanbu Industrial City along the Red Sea, on the west coast of Saudi Arabia. The refinery will process Arabian Heavy crude to produce high–quality refined products that will meet the most stringent global product specifications and is expected to begin operations late 2014. The refinery will benefit from the availability of the Arabian Heavy crude oil supply while utilizing the excellent facilities and infrastructure of the Yanbu’ industrial city such as power and water grids and residential area. This project represents an excellent opportunity to build on the Kingdom's strategy of addressing global energy demand while attracting foreign investment to expand its economy. This facility in particular, with its ability to process large quantities of heavy crude, not only eases tight refining capacities but also addresses the mismatch between available crude supplies and refinery configurations; which is complicating today's refining products global supply. Several contracts were awarded to international and domestic engineering, procurement and construction companies to build the refinery. The refinery site and fabrication yard will accommodate a peak work force of 30,000 for the construction of the refinery and support facilities. The 30,000 workers are expected to accumulate approximately 130 million man-hours to construct the refinery. Once completed, the refinery will establish approximately 1,300 full time jobs and support approximately 5,000 indirect jobs in the Kingdom.