Saudi oil refineries upgraded to meet demand

Saudi Arabia is devoting more than 3 billion US dollars to upgrade its major oil refineries to keep pace with rising local product demand and boost middle distillate exports, oil industry sources based in the Gulf said.

A 1.5 billion US dollar upgrade and expansion program at the 265,000 Barrel-per-day (BPD) Ras Tanura plant on the Gulf coast will be ready for commissioning in June 1998, boosting capacity to 300,000 BPD and raising distillate and gasoline yields.

"The target is that by the end of June the plant will be fully commissioned and all units will be operating," an industry source close to Ras Tanura project said.