YEMEN - Maarib Refinery.

This topping plant, 56 km east of Maarib, was inaugurated on April 12, 1986 with a capacity of 10,000 b/d. It is owned by the state but is operated by the Yemen Refining and Marketing Co., a subsidiary of Yemen Hunt Oil Company (YHOC - 75.5%) and the South Korean Group (24.5%).

Plans in recent years to expand the plant's capacity to 25,000-30,000 b/d have faced the same delaying problems as the Aden refinery. The government has made a commitment to the IMF and World Bank that the plant would be privatised by end-2004 but now this seems to be unlikely. VECO has done a feasibility study to raise the plant's capacity to 25,000 b/d.

The plant was built by Petrofac of the US under a $19.1m contract awarded by YHOC. It consists of a 10,000 b/d distillation unit and a 2,500 b/d reformer. It can produce LPG, unleaded gasoline (3,054 b/d), diesel oil (3,600 b/d) and fuel oil (3,000 b/d). It has two storage tanks of 55,000 barrel capacity. It processes crude from YHOC's Alif field in the Maarib/Jawf region.

VECO's feasibility study is being used as a document for financing the expansion. The US Trade & Development Agency (TDA) has considered helping to finance the project.