Abu Dhabi - ULG/LSGO Project.

Under a $480m EPC contract signed in June 2002, Technip-Coflexip has built for Takreer a plant to produce 81,000 b/d of unleaded gasoline (ULG) and low-sulphur gasoil (LSGO), on stream in mid-2005. The FEED work for this was done in 2002 by Bechtel. The PMC was Parsons of the US. The main phase has been built at Ruwais. The other one was built at Umm al-Nar refinery (see below).

The ULG/LSGO plant at Ruwais-1 includes two continuous catalytic converters each of 120,000 b/d, heavy/light naphtha hydrotreaters with a combined capacity of 31,700 b/d, a 15,000 b/d gas/oil hydrotreater, a sulphur plant and utilities. CBI Eastern Anstalt, a unit of Chicago Bridge & Iron of the US, built a related tankage system at the complex.

These green products are in line with a worldwide trend to market motor fuels with improved quality specifications. Commercial production and export of these fuels began during the third quarter of 2005. The green diesel has a much reduced sulphur content at 10 parts per million (ppm) by weight. Additional improvements in other qualities such as distillation boiling range, flow properties, cetane number and aromatics content were brought about through installation of new facilities.

In the UAE, about 12% of vehicles, mostly trucks and heavy equipment, use diesel. One Takreer executive was in 2005 quoted as saying: "If we can reduce the sulphur from diesel to the minimum with better refining technology, technical standards and law-enforcement, it would be better for all of us". Under a "National Environmental Strategy", sulphur emissions have been reduced to around 5,000 ppm. By end-2005 this had been reduced to 2,500 ppm; and by 2010, the federation's diesel's emissions will be cut to around 50 ppm. A technical committee in July 2004 finalised the specifications for low sulphur diesel.