Saudi King and Chinese President inaugurate YASREF Refinery

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Chinese President Xi Jinping, jointly inaugurated the Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Company (YASREF) refinery.

The inauguration ceremony took place in Riyadh in conjunction with President Xi Jinping’s official visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Established on January 14, 2012, YASREF is a joint venture between Saudi Aramco, which holds a 62.5% share, and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), which holds a 37.5% share. YASREF represents both companies’ focus on driving downstream growth across the entire hydrocarbon chain.

Located in Yanbu’ Industrial City on the west coast of Saudi Arabia, the world-class YASREF refinery has the capacity to refine 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Arabian heavy crude and produces over 13.5 million gallons per day of ultra-clean transportation fuels and other high-value refined products. YASREF has state-of-the-art refining facilities such as a distillate hydrocracker and hydrotreaters. It has capacity to deliver close to 100,000 barrels per day of clean, high-octane gasoline through a gasoline complex with an advanced continuous catalytic reformer.

On January 15, 2015, YASREF completed its first shipment, sending 300,000 barrels of clean diesel fuel from the YASREF Marine Terminal.

China is Saudi Arabia’s largest trading partner and the countries’ close cooperation in the energy sector, notably through Sinopec and Saudi Aramco, has greatly benefitted both economies. Sinopec is now Saudi Aramco’s largest crude oil trading partner and onshore drilling service provider. The newly signed agreement will enable the two companies to further enhance their relationship and jointly provide advanced, high quality products and services along the hydrocarbon industry chain.