SATORP: an exceptional partnership

 

Location: Jubail (Saudi Arabia)

Partners: Saudi Aramco (62.5%) and TotalEnergies

Facilities: Refining and Petrochemicals Platform

440,000
the production capacity of the SATORP site in number of barrels of crude oil per day
Saudi Arabia map
 

Benefitting from the combined expertise of Saudi Aramco and TotalEnergies, SATORP is one of the world’s most efficient integrated refining and petrochemicals platforms. Its role is to produce high-value-added products from heavy crude oil.

Operational since 2014, SATORP is not only one of the world’s largest refining and petrochemicals platforms, it is also one of the most complex and efficient. The site is capable of converting a type of heavy, high-sulfur crude oil that is especially difficult to process into high value-added products. To accomplish this, the refinery relies on a full range of processing units, including:
  • Two distillate hydrocrackers to convert heavy petroleum fractions into lighter, ultra-low-sulfur products.
  • A fluid catalytic cracking unit that produces a wide variety of products, including very light hydrocarbons such as propylene and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
  • A coking unit (“coking” is a thermal process used to convert heavy fractions into light petroleum products and coke).
 
In early 2018, the SATORP platform’s production capacity was raised to 440,000 barrels of crude oil a day, bringing annual output to around 22 million metric tons of refined petroleum products, including 700,000 metric tons of paraxylene, 150,000 metric tons of benzene and 200,000 metric tons of high-purity propylene.
To consolidate their positions in the growing Middle East and Asian markets, in 2018 TotalEnergies and Saudi Aramco teams approved a $5.5 billion investment to build a world-class petrochemicals complex downstream of the facility. It will comprise a mixed-feed cracker (50% ethane and refinery off-gases) with a production capacity of 1.5 million metric tons per year of ethylene and related high-added-value petrochemical units.

Our commitment to staff training and local development

SATORP employs 1,100 people, 70% of whom are Saudi nationals. Among them, 28 young Saudi engineers were given the opportunity to complete their studies in France through a partnership with IFP Énergies Nouvelles. In addition, nearly 400 Saudi operators received on-site training in a dedicated training center created by SATORP.