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Explore Ras Tanura: The Saudi Megaproject of an Oil Island Capable of Producing 500 Thousand Barrels/Day of Oil and Gas.
Despite the global trend towards sustainability, oil remains a vital resource for global energy supply. According to data from the International Energy Agency from 2020, oil and its derivatives accounted for 29.5% of the global energy source that year. Saudi Arabia, a key player in this sector for decades, is now launching an ambitious megaproject: an oil and gas island, reaffirming its influence in the energy market.
Saudi Arabia’s Oil Island Megaproject Accounts for 15 km²
One of Saudi Arabia’s references in the oil and gas sector is also one of the oldest refineries in the Persian Gulf. This is Ras Tanura, the largest producer of barrels of oil in Saudi Arabia and one of the top 12 globally.
Located on the west coast of Saudi Arabia, the city of Ras Tanura is considered a historic region of the Asian country, and amidst such tradition and a vast reserve of oil and gas, the city has housed, since the 1940s, the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry.
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The Saudi oil island megaproject is part of a complex covering an area of 15 square kilometers. To give you an idea, this is only about 1 km smaller than one of the most extensive and traditional districts in São Paulo: Santo Amaro.
The oil and gas megaproject houses a range of facilities, including a petrochemical plant, a port, a terminal for crude oil and refined products, a maritime terminal, and a power plant. Currently, the Saudi oil island megaproject also has 3,200 residents, including some of American and British origin.
Construction of the Oil and Gas Megaproject Employed Thousands of People Around the World
The construction of the Saudi oil island megaproject involved enormous efforts from Arranco, a company formed by the Saudi government and a joint venture of four American companies. In fact, the Saudi government gradually purchased the shares of these companies until it became the sole owner of the company in the 1980s.
Indeed, the construction of Ras Tanura involved a mobilization of thousands of workers and the importance of large quantities of materials and equipment from around the world. The project was carried out in several phases, with the first phase dedicated to building a small refinery with a capacity of 50,000 barrels per day, or just 9.1% of the current capacity.
In the following years, the megaproject underwent expansions and upgrades with the construction of new processing units and the incorporation of new technologies to increase efficiency and production. One of the main expansions only occurred during the 1970s when the capacity of the Saudi oil island was increased to the current numbers of 550,000 barrels of oil per day.
Understand How the Saudi Oil Island Works
In addition to a sulfur recovery unit and several storage tanks and pipelines, the space includes at least seven essential sections for different types of oil processing.
These include: the crude oil distillation unit, the first stage of the refining process, in which crude oil is heated and separated into various fractions according to their boiling points; the vacuum installation unit, where the heavier fractions of crude oil are separated using a process called vacuum distillation; and a unit named hydrocracker, where heavy hydrocarbons are transformed into lighter hydrocarbons.
This process uses hydrogen gas and a catalyst, and in the fluid catalytic cracker section, a refinement of the previous process occurs, converting heavier hydrocarbons into lighter ones also through a catalyst. There are also three other units dedicated to the oil refining process.
In the alkylation unit, light hydrocarbons are combined to create high-octane gasoline.
In the isomerization unit, linear chain hydrocarbons are converted into branched chain hydrocarbons, which are more valuable as gasoline. Finally, the reforming unit is responsible for converting low-octane naphtha into high-octane gasoline.
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