Abu Dhabi - The Ruwais Refinery.

ADNOC decided to build a second refinery in 1977, one year after the old Umm Al Nar plant was completed, because of rapid growth in demand for refined products. A contract was awarded that year to Snamprogetti of Italy to build the plant at Ruwais, 250 km east of Abu Dhabi and close to the Jebel Dhanna oil terminal, with a capacity of 120,000 b/d. Work was completed in early 1981 and the plant went on stream by June that year. In January 1995 the Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC), in charge of the entire hydrocarbon sector, approved a project to raise the refinery's capacity to 535,000 b/d at a cost of up to $2 bn. ADNOC later decided to limit the refinery's expansion to 400,000 b/d, by adding two 140,000 b/d condensate units, which will only cost the company about $800m. It decided to delay the installation of a 135,000 b/d crude oil distillation unit and a number of upgrading facilities that will cost over $1.2 bn. The main contract for the two 140,000 b/d condensate units was awarded in early August 1997 to Snamprogetti. The twin units, to be completed before March 1999, will turn condensates into kerosine, naphtha and LPG. The condensates will come from the onshore Habshan gas system. The project's front-end engineering and design contract was awarded to Fluor Daniel of the US in early October 1995. Snamprogetti's contract includes downstream units to handle naphtha stabilisation and kerosine sweetening, expansion of the existing tank farm, and expansion of existing utilities. (Snamprogetti also won a contract for the Asab gas development project - see Gas Market Trends). Motherwell Bridge of the UK won another contract to build an LPG storage facility at the refinery. This should be completed in February 1999. The award of a facility at Ruwais to produce unleaded gasoline, which would cost more than $500m, was delayed in late 1998 as ADNOC was weighing both the risks and rewards of such a project in view of a sharp fall in oil prices and the Asian economic crisis. Snamprogetti was one of the bidders in partnership with Athens-based CCC. The planned expansion will eventually include an increase in the output of coke, needed for a 220,000 t/y aluminium smelter to be built in Abu Dhabi. In addition, the capacity of the hydrocracker at Ruwais will be raised to about 73,000 b/d from 27,000 b/d and a 36,000 b/d vis-breaker will be installed as well. An advanced management information system has been set up at ADNOC's head office, linking it by network with the refineries. Production management systems and sophisticated process control systems have been installed. There are also plans for a plant to reduce sulphur in diesel fuel. When the Ruwais refinery first came on stream, in 1981, it had the following units: crude oil distillation, 120,000 b/d; naphtha hydro-desulphurisation, 34,350 b/d; catalytic reforming, 19,150 b/d; kerosine hydrotreating, 20,780 b/d; heavy gasoil desulphurisation, 21,850 b/d; and sulphur recovery, 44 tons/day. A 27,000 b/d hydrocracker was built in 1985. It was modified in 1987 to process 794,000 t/y of residues from both Abu Dhabi refineries, raising its output of middle distillates. At the same time, the catalytic reformer was upgraded to increase output of high-octane gasoline. Currently, the refinery has the capacity to process the following: premium gasoline, 410,000 t/y; regular gasoline, 487,000 t/y; jet fuel/kerosine, 794,000 t/y; gasoil, 1.595m t/y; fuel oil, 1.785m t/y; bunker C, about 300,000 t/y; raw LPG, 88,000 t/y; and sulphur, 10,000 t/y. Repair work on the hydrocracker was completed in 1995. In June 1994, Chiyoda Corp. won a $90m contract to upgrade utilities at the refinery. This included setting up a 3.2m cubic metre/day desalination unit and a 30 MW gas turbine. Work was completed in mid-1996. ADNOC's main markets for oil products are Japan and the Indian sub-continent. India and Pakistan buy up 45% of its refined products exports and 60% of its gasoil sales. ADNOC's refining unit Refco is to have a lube oil plant at Ruwais built with a capacity of 250,000 t/y. This should be on stream in 2001. The output is to meet local demand for base oils and the surplus will be sold to other UAE emirates. A feasibility study on this was completed in 1998. The sulphur handling facility at Ruwais is to be expanded under a contract worth more than $60m to be awarded in January 1999. The new plant is to have a capacity to handle up to 6,200 tons/day of sulphur to be produced from the OGD-2 gas project (see Gas Market Trends). The front-end engineering and designs have been done by Technip. The existing plant is handling 4,250 t/d. A hazardous waste treatment plant is to be built at the Ruwais industrial zone. This will treat and recycle waste and sludge produced by the refinery and other ADNOC facilities at Ruwais. To take an area of 6 sq km, the plant will have chemical treatment units to neutralise acids and alkalis, waste encapsulation, protected and sealed landfill sites, and oil recovery units to produce bunker oil. The project, managed by Abu Dhabi Drilling Chemicals and Products (Addcap) of ADNOC's new Shared Services Directorate, is to be awarded this month. Carl Bro International of Denmark is doing a separate study on an oil spill contingency plan for ADNOC at Ruwais.