Saudi Aramco, Conoco Phillips sign $6 billion refinery deal
Posted: 29 May 2006
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STATE-RUN Saudi Aramco and Houston-based ConocoPhillips signed a $6 billion agreement to build a 400,000 barrel-a-day oil refinery in Saudi’s Red Sea city of Yanbu.
The refinery would be designed to process Arabian heavy crude and produce high-qu ality, ultra-low sulfur refined products that meet current and future U.S. and European product specifications.
 Under the deal, the two companies may offer up to a 30% interest in an initial public offering to Saudi nationals. The project, forecast to come online in 2011, follows a similar deal signed Sunday between Aramco and French oil company Total SA for a 400,000 barrel-a-day refinery in the eastern Saudi city of Jubail on the Persian Gulf.
The MOU sets forth the agreement between Saudi Aramco and ConocoPhillips regarding the key parameters of the project, the project configuration, and a broad range of the major technical, commercial, legal and financial terms.
The proposed project represents an opportunity for the world's largest producer of hydrocarbons and ConocoPhillips to work together to construct a state-of-the-art, full-conversion, heavy crude refinery to serve multiple markets with high-qu ality, refined products in an environmentally sound manner.
For Saudi Arabia, this project would not only add value to the Kingdom's petroleum product exports, it would also be a platform for increased industrial development in the Kingdom. In addition to attracting foreign investment to Saudi Arabia, the project is expected to expand its economy and provide increased job opportunities for Saudi nationals.
Abdallah S. Jum'ah, Saudi Aramco president and CEO said: "For over 70 years, Saudi Aramco has been committed to providing the world with reliable energy to fuel its prosperity. This proposed venture with our industry colleagues at ConocoPhillips is a proud moment for us all, and will allow us to expand our role to downstream exports in addition to the upstream."
Jim Mulva, chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips added: “ConocoPhillips welcomes this opportunity to work with the Saudi Arabian Oil Company to add needed capacity to the international refining system. The Yanbu' project fits well with the company's overall strategy to invest in projects that expand our global refining presence, and would provide significant new supplies of refined products to help meet growing requirements around the world."
Longer-term, the MOU contemplates Saudi Aramco and ConocoPhillips forming a joint venture company with equal ownership interests to own and operate the proposed new refinery. Subject to required regulatory approvals, the parties may offer up to 30 percent interest in the project to the Saudi public. Saudi Aramco would supply the project with 400,000 barrels per day of Arabian heavy crude oil. Saudi Aramco and ConocoPhillips would each be responsible for marketing one half of the refinery's production.
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