Posted on 01/02/2015 9:50:36 AM PST by thackney
State oil giant Saudi Aramco has suspended plans to build a US$2 billion clean fuels plant at its largest oil refinery in Ras Tanura, three industry sources said.
The energy project appears to be one of the first suspended in Saudi Arabia in response to the halving of the oil price in the last six months.
The Ras Tanura clean fuels project, including a naphtha hydrotreater, was to be part of a second phase of upgrades to Aramco’s refineries, and was originally due to go on stream in 2016.
“They withdrew the bidding,” said one source familiar with the matter, adding that no reason was given for the move.
Another source said: “They indicated they will postpone the project by a year and rebid.”
(Excerpt) Read more at themalaymailonline.com ...
Cancel gore-bull and cheap oil?
Win-win!
Ha Ha!
Previous description of the work. More info on this and other projects at the link.
Ras Tanura is the oldest refinery on the Persian Gulf coast, located near the industrial port city Jubail in Saudi Arabia. It has a crude distillation capacity of 550,000 barrels per day (bpd). It is owned and operated by the state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco. The majority of the products produced by the refinery are supplied to Dhahran bulk plant for domestic use, and the remaining are exported.
http://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/ras-tanura-refinery-expansion/
Saudi Aramco launched a $2.6bn project, named the Ras Tanura Refinery Clean Fuels and Aromatics Project, to improve the environmental friendliness of the plant. The company announced its plans to invite tenders for clean fuels and aromatics project at the refinery in April 2013.
The scope of works under the project will include carrying out front end engineering design (FEED) services for the inside and outside battery limits, and carrying out modifications to the refinery in line with environmental regulations.
The project also will include adding an aromatics cracker at the refinery. The contracts for the project are expected to be awarded in November 2013. The construction is expected to last up to 42 months. The full mechanical completion of the project is expected by May 2017.
The main contractors preparing to bid for the expansion of the aromatics cracking at the refinery include Chiyoda and JGC Corporation from Japan, Daelim Industrial, Hyundai Engineering & Construction, and GS Engineering and Construction from South Korea, Petrofac from the UK, Saipem from Italy, Technip from France and Tecnicas Reunidas from Spain.
We’ve figured out how to upgrade waste oils (of all kinds) to commercially useful hydrocarbons. The thermal cracking and fluid catalytic cracking processes require minimal modification for this purpose. (Cue Peter: “Why are not funding this?!”)
We could even grow oil-bearing plants for this purpose, and stick it to the terrorists, on which we still depend on for a sizeable portion of our oil consumption.
The only thing stopping us from doing this, would probably be the environmental Nazis, who would like nothing more than to get us off ALL hydrocarbons.
The best part: All of this would be (almost?) carbon-neutral. The enviro-Nazis can cram it.
Those processes are a lot more economic at $100 oil than at $50.
I forgot about that...I’m a little sick today, sometimes I don’t think these through...But they are very similar.
The flipside to this is that the oil companies are partially cut out of the equation—the recycled/plant oils ARE the “crude oils”. (They still have to refine it, though.) It also serves to cut foreign oil companies out of the supply chain completely.
If anything, UVO—used vegetable oil would trade at a discount to W.T.I., but the refining process may just be different enough to displace that savings...for now.
I do not know enough about the economic feasibility of growing plants for (refined, not esterified) fuels to get into price estimates; presumably, it would ignite a food-v-fuel debate of some sort (cf. the RFS/ethanol fiasco), even if non-food plants are used, as they would displace land that could be used to grow food. This is referred to as VVO—virgin vegetable oil.
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But the one overarching problem with this particular hydrocarbon pathway is the simple fact that this “crude oil” is so darn versatile—that is why bio-diesel (not a true kerosene) is expensive—the oil could have been used to make a whole host of other products: soap, feed, cosmetics, &c. This goes for both UVO and VVO.
FWIW, I don’t care where my gasoline/diesel comes from—be it from underground or from plants—as long as the price remains reasonable, and can be legally called “gasoline” or “diesel” according to ASTM D4814/EN 590. No FAME, no biodiesel!
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