Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) has awarded contracts for tanker unloading facilities and a pipeline as part of a US$3.1Bn crude flexibility programme
ADNOC is expanding refineries in Ruwais, west of the capital of Abu Dhabi, in UAE, and part of this is the tanker terminal upgrade and expansion. It plans to upgrade the Ruwais West refinery and build facilities to process crude oils.
To do this, ADNOC plans to spend US$3.1Bn on the crude flexibility programme with engineering underway and construction scheduled for 2022. Of that, more than US$245M will be spent on upgrading pipelines and the terminal infrastructure.
These plans involve developing facilities for unloading the Upper Zakhum (UZ) field and non-system (NS) crudes at Jebel Dhanna from tankers using single point mooring, subsea pipeline, onshore pipeline and gravity pipeline to the three large tanks already in place.
Both UZ and NS crudes will be blended. The resulting crude will be transferred to Ruwais Refinery West to feed the oil distillation unit at a maximum rate of 420,000 barrels per day (b/d).
Penspen and Target Engineering Construction Co have secured a contract to provide engineering and project management services for this project, upgrading offshore facilities and additional tanker unloadings and support services from 2022.
This project is within ADNOC’s plans (with partners) to invest up to US$45Bn in downstream operations as it looks to more than double refinery capacity to 1.5M b/d by 2026.
ADNOC is also investing in upstream facilities to increase output capacity to 4M b/d by the end of this year and 5M b/d in 2030.
This contract award comes just weeks after ADNOC Logistics and Services (L&S) secured a new 25-year agreement to provide critical marine services across all petroleum ports in Abu Dhabi.
ADNOC’s shipping and maritime logistics subsidiary will provide services to the Jebel Dhanna Ruwais petroleum port and Mubarraz petroleum ports, and offshore terminals at Das Island and Zirku Island.
ADNOC L&S will provide port services including pilotage, towage and line handling. In 2019 it completed 8,659 dives, 741 towages, 2,022 line-handling jobs for incoming vessels, 5,630 pilotages and 2,806 vessel berths. It also manages the largest oil spill response inventory in the UAE.
ADNOC L&S’ integrated offshore logistics team manages a fleet of 44 vessels and charters a similar number. This includes anchor handling tug vessels, platform supply vessels, safety standby vessels, landing craft and crew boats.
It operates logistics bases in Ruwais, Fujairah and Mussafah and a marine personnel passenger terminal at Mina Zayed Port. In marine services, ADNOC L&S manages a fleet of 46 vessels including diving support, pilot boats, tugs and maintenance vessels.
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