Introduction

Petroleum Refining ChE462

Dr Hisham Bamufleh
Crude oil distillation

Refinery at night

Petroleum Refining ChE462

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Refinery complexity
Flare

Petroleum Refining ChE462

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Tank farm

Petroleum Refining ChE462

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Refinery Process
Chart

Petroleum Refining ChE462

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 Petroleum Refinery
The refinery is a sequence of operations with high
complexity with all or most of the following process units
– Crude oil distillation unit
• crude oil is charged to atmospheric distillation tower
– Vacuum distillation unit
• Reduced crude is charged to vacuum distillation tower
– Catalytic cracking or hydrocracking unit
• Products from atmospheric and vacuum distillation tower is the
feedstock to Catalytic cracking or hydrocracking unit
– Hydrotreating or reforming unit
• To improve the quality of the product

Petroleum Refining ChE462

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• Isomerization unit
– To convert paraffins to isomers of high octane
number
• Fuel gas, LPG and unsaturated hydrocarbons
• Alkylation unit
– Olefins with isobutane to form high octane
isoparaffins in acid media HF,H2SO4
• Lube oil refinery
– Reduced crude is processed to lubricating oils

Petroleum Refining ChE462

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Petrochemical feedstock resources

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 Synthesis gas production

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Oil Reserves

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• Proven reserves are those reserves claimed to have a reasonable
certainty (normally at least 90% confidence) of being recoverable under
existing economic and political conditions, with existing technology.
• Probable reserves are those estimated to exist and be commercially
recoverable with a probability of at least 50 percent.
• Possible reserves, the most speculative and optimistic measure, are estimated
to exist and be commercially recoverable with a probability of at least 10
percent.
• Associated petroleum gas (APG) is gas dissolved in oil or as a free "gas cap"
above the oil in the reservoir. Associated petroleum gas is produced in the
process of oil production, so it is actually a derivative. But APG itself is also
a valuable raw material for further processing ”wet gas”.
• Nonassociated gas is the natural gas coming from reservoirs that are not
connected with any known source of liquid petroleum, is “dry gas”.

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 Saudi Arabia Position
• Saudi Arabia also has the largest, or one of the largest, proven crude oil reserves (i.e. oil
that is economically recoverable) in the world (18% of global reserves, over
41 billion m3 (260 billion bbl)).
• Saudi Arabia (including the Neutral Zone) had proved natural gas reserves of 291 trillion
cubic feet in 2014, fifth largest in the world behind Russia, Iran, Qatar, and the United
State. Due to its sizeable domestic gas markets, is "unlikely to become LNG exporters
anytime soon". Saudi Arabia is prioritizing upstream gas investment, but for use in the
domestic power generation market, not for export.
• It is the largest exporter of total petroleum liquids in the world and maintains the world's
largest crude oil production capacity.
• Saudi Arabia was the world’s second-largest petroleum liquids producer behind the United
States and was the world’s second-largest crude oil producer behind Russia
• Although Saudi Arabia has about 100 major oil and gas fields, more than half of its oil
reserves are contained in eight fields in the northeast portion of the country.
• The giant Ghawar field is the world’s largest oil field in terms of production and total
remaining reserves.
• The Ghawar field has estimated remaining proved oil reserves of 75 billion barrels, more
than all but seven other countries

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Reserve oil and gas

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 Oil Refineries in Saudi Arabia
• Riyadh Refinery (Saudi Aramco), 120,000 bbl/d (19,000 m3/d)
• Rabigh Refinery (Saudi Aramco/Sumitomo), 400,000 bbl/d (64,000 m3/d)
• Jeddah Refinery (Saudi Aramco), 100,000 bbl/d (16,000 m3/d) - CLOSED
• Ras Tanura Refinery (Saudi Aramco), 550,000 bbl/d (87,000 m3/d)
• Yanbu' Refinery (Saudi Aramco), 225,000 bbl/d (35,800 m3/d)
• Yanbu' Refinery (SAMREF) (Saudi Aramco/ExxonMobil), 400,000 bbl/d
(64,000 m3/d)
• Jubail Refinery (SATORP) (Saudi Aramco/Total), 400,000 bbl/d
(64,000 m3/d)
• YASREF Refinery (Yanbu, KSA) (Saudi Aramco/Sinopec), 400,000 bbl/d
(64,000 m3/d)[56]
• Jazan Refinery (Saudi Aramco, scheduled to begin commissioning/start up
2022 at the earliest), 400,000 bbl/d (64,000 m3/d)
• Jubail Refinery (SASREF) (Saudi Aramco), 305,000 bbl/d (48,500 m3/d)

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Oil Refineries in Saudi Arabia

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Oil Refineries in Saudi Arabia

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Saudi Arabia oil refineries

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Gas plants in Saudi Arabia

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 Oil fields in Saudi Arabia
• Ghawar Field
This is the largest Conventional Oil field in the World.
Location: Al-Ahsa, Eastern Province, Discovery: 1948
Started Production on 1951
Produces 5,000,000 barrels per day of Oil and 2 Billion
Cubic Feet of Gas Per day, estimated 71,000 million barrels
of Oil reserved.
• Khurais Oil Field
located around 250 km southwest of Dhahran and 300 km
north southeast of Riyadh, the new project began in 2006
and produces about 1.5 million barrels of Oil. The first
production of oil began in 1963
Petroleum Refining ChE462
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 Reservoir Estimations
• After the discovery of a reservoir, a petroleum engineer will seek to build a better picture of
the accumulation. The first stage is to conduct a seismic survey to determine the possible size
of the trap and the volume of oil reservoir.
• Estimation of the porosity of the rock. The porosity, or the percentage of the total volume
that contains fluids rather than solid rock, is 20-35% or less. It can give information on the
actual capacity.
• Laboratory testing can determine the characteristics of the reservoir fluids, particularly the
expansion factor of the oil, or how much the oil expands when brought from high pressure,
high temperature of the reservoir
• As a result of studying things such as the permeability of the rock (how easily fluids can flow
through the rock) , it is possible to estimate the recovery factor, or what proportion of oil in
place can be reasonably expected to be produced. The recovery factor is commonly 30-35%,
giving a value for the recoverable reserves.
• The difficulty is that reservoirs are not uniform. They have variable porosities and
permeabilities. For this reason, computer modeling of economically viable reservoirs is often
carried out. 
• Geologists, geophysicists and reservoir engineers work together to build a model which
allows simulation of the flow of fluids in the reservoir, leading to an improved estimate of
reserves.
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• Qatif Project and Abu Safah field
Qatif is the largest Crude Production facility in the
World, has latest technology.
Location: Qatif, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia
Oil Production: 800,000 barrels per day Crude Oil
(500,000 Barrels from Qatif and 300,000 barrels
from Abu Safah field)
Gas Production: 370 million Cubic feet per day of
Natural Gas
Hydrocarbon Condensate: 40,000 barrels per Day
Sulfur: 1,800 metric tons of Sulfer per day
Petroleum Refining ChE462
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• Safaniya Oil Field
the largest offshore oil field in the world.
Located at about 265 km north of Dhahran, Arabian Gulf, Saudi Arabia
Discovery: 1951, Star of Production: 1957
Current Production of Oil: 1,200,000 barrels per day
Estimated Oil Reserve: 37,000 million barrels.
Estimated Gas Reserve: 5,360×109 cu feet
It is located the Dhahran, covered 50 by 15 kilometers,
• Shaybah Oil Field
It is Onshore Oil field located in the northern edge of Rub’ Al Khali desert.
Discovery, Development and Start of Production: 1998
Production of oil: 1,000,000 barrels per day
Estimated oil Reserve: 14,000 million barrels
Estimated gas Reserve: 710×109 m3
• Abqaiq, Berri, Manifa, Zuluf

Petroleum Refining ChE462

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Oil and gas fields in Saudi Arabia

Petroleum Refining ChE462

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Petroleum Refining ChE462
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 Newly discovered gas fields
• Jafurah is estimated to hold 200 trillion cubic feet of rich raw gas, and Aramco
expects to begin production there in 2024, reaching about 2.2 billion standard
cubic feet per day of sales by 2036.
• Gas from the field could be used to produce blue hydrogen, a fuel seen as
crucial to the green-energy transition.
• The five fields were described as follows:
• Shadoon, in the central region southeast of Riyadh, producing 27 million cubic
feet of gas per day with 3,300 barrels of condensate
• Shehab, in the empty quarter, with 31 million cubic feet per day of gas
• Shorfa, in the empty quarter, with 16.9 million cubic feet per day
• Umm Khansir, with 2 million cubic feet per day of unconventional natural gas
• Samna, with three different wells totaling 26.7 million cubic feet per day of
unconventional natural gas

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 The East-West Pipeline
• Petroline runs nearly 750 miles from the Ghawar oil field to
Yanbu. Built in 1981. overall throughput to 4.5 million bpd.
• NGL pipeline runs from Shadqam to Yanbu, again parallel to
Petroline, serves Yanbu's petrochemical plants and can transport
490,000 bpd.
• IPSA (Iraq Pipeline across Saudi Arabia) (1.65 million bpd, closed
in 1990) The portion of the pipeline that runs parallel to the East-
West Pipeline was converted to transport natural gas to power
plants.
• Tapline (Trans-Arabian Pipeline) built in 1947 to transport crude
oil from Qaisumah through Jordon to Lebanon (0.5 million bpd,
closed in 1984)
Petroleum Refining ChE462
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The East-West Pipeline

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 Major Oil Export Terminals
• Ras Tanura (6 million bpd capacity)
• Yanbu (5 million bpd capacity)
• Ras al-Ju'aymah (3 - 3.6 million bpd capacity)
• Jizan
• Ras al-Khafji
• Rabigh
• Zuluf
• Jubail
• Jeddah
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 World's largest refineries

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World's largest refineries

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 Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC)
• is an intergovernmental organization of twelve
oil-producing countries made up of Algeria,
Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria
, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates
and Venezuela.
• OPEC has had its headquarters
in Vienna since 1965
• ensuring the stabilization of prices in
international oil markets
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 Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OAPEC)
• Organization founded in 1968 by Arab states
• The goals of OAPEC are to
– promote the oil interests of member countries.
– enhance cooperation among them in production, marketing, and
associated industries.
– carry out joint ventures to diversify their economies, to participate
in stabilizing the oil market, and to provide suitable circumstances
for capital and experience to be invested in the member countries
• OAPEC's current members are Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the
United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, Lybia, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain,
Algeria, Egypt, and Qatar.

Petroleum Refining ChE462

Dr Hisham Bamufleh
• The capacity of the refinery is typically defined by
the total capacity of atmospheric distillation units
operating in the refinery.
• Each refinery has its own unique processing
scheme which is determined by
– The process equipment available
– Crude oil characteristics
– Operating costs
– Products demand
• The optimum flow pattern for any refinery is
dependent on economical consideration
• No two refineries are identical in their operation
Petroleum Refining ChE462
Dr Hisham Bamufleh
The primary products of the industry fall into three major
categories:

• Fuels (motor gasoline, diesel and distillate fuel oil, liquefied

petroleum gas, jet fuel, residual fuel oil, kerosene and coke)

• Finished nonfuel products (solvents, lubricating oils,

greases, petroleum wax, petroleum jelly, asphalt, and coke)

• Chemical industry feed stocks (naphtha, ethane, propane,

butane, ethylene, propylene, butylenes, butadiene, benzene,
toluene, and xylene).

Petroleum Refining ChE462

Dr Hisham Bamufleh