Saudi Aramco has chosen Axens technologies for major processing units at the 400,000-b/d refinery it plans to build in the Jazan area of southern Saudi Arabia (OGJ Online, Feb. 9, 2011).
Axens will design integrated units for naphtha hydrotreating for feedstock purification, continuous catalytic reforming, C5/C6 isomerization, and production of high-purity paraxylene and benzene. It didn’t specify capacities.
Axens also is designing the refinery’s gas oil hydrotreater, which it describes as “one of the world’s largest.” The unit will produce diesel with less than 10 ppm sulfur.
KBR has a contract for front-end engineering and design and project management services.
King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saudi approved the project in 2006 as part of a broader development program for the southern province (OGJ Online, Jan. 20, 2010).
Bob Tippee | Editor
Bob Tippee has been chief editor of Oil & Gas Journal since January 1999 and a member of the Journal staff since October 1977. Before joining the magazine, he worked as a reporter at the Tulsa World and served for four years as an officer in the US Air Force. A native of St. Louis, he holds a degree in journalism from the University of Tulsa.
