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SAMREF Refinery | Source: Khairallah A.H. (Nov 27, 2025), 'SAMREF 2025 Achievements' Youtube video

Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery Company Ltd. (SAMREF) operates one of the most sophisticated and highly complex export refineries in the Middle East, located in Yanbu Industrial City on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast. The refinery commenced operations on November 15, 1984, with an initial design capacity of 263,000 bpd of Arabian Light crude oil, and has since expanded its throughput to more than 400,000 bpd — an increase of over 52% above original design — through continuous facility upgrades and process optimization.

Processing Configuration

SAMREF is a single-train, complex refinery configured exclusively to process Arabian Light crude oil — Saudi Arabia's benchmark medium-sour crude grade. Its processing configuration is designed to maximize the yield of high-value light products, with gasoline and distillate yields exceeding 80% per barrel of crude — significantly above the industry norm for comparable refineries. The refinery's processing flexibility enables it to adjust its product mix in response to both seasonal demand shifts and longer-term changes in market patterns.

The crude refining process is carried out across the following principal processing units:

• Crude Distillation Unit (CDU)
• Vacuum Distillation Unit (ADU)
• Visbreaker — improves fluidity of heavy fuel oil residues
• Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU) — gas oil conversion to lighter products
• Naphtha Hydrotreater
• Continuous Catalytic Reformer (CCR) — gasoline octane improvement and reformate production
• Isomerization Unit — light naphtha octane improvement
• Hydrisom Unit
• Alkylation Unit — LPG upgrading for high-octane gasoline blending
• MTBE Unit — oxygenated gasoline production
• Saturated Gas Plant
• Unsaturated Gas Plant
• Catalytic Hydrodesulfurization (HDS) Unit
• Amine Treatment, Sulfur Recovery, and Prilling Unit

Key processing capabilities include reforming and isomerization for gasoline octane improvement, fluid catalytic cracking for gas oil conversion, alkylation and MTBE for LPG upgrading and premium gasoline production, and visbreaking for residual upgrading. The MTBE unit, in particular, enables SAMREF to produce oxygenated gasoline — a cleaner-burning motor vehicle fuel — marking SAMREF as the first refinery in Saudi Arabia to produce this type of fuel.

Products

SAMREF produces a full range of refined petroleum products for both domestic supply and export markets:

• LPG / Propane
• Gasoline (multiple grades)
• Reformate (as feedstock for local petrochemical plants)
• Jet Fuel / Kerosene
• Automotive Diesel Oil (ADO) — multiple grades, including 500 ppm low-sulfur diesel
• Marine Heavy Fuel Oil (MHFO) — two grades
• Sulfur (recovered and shipped via expanded sulfur shipping facilities)

The approximate product slate breakdown is as follows:

Offtake & Marketing

All SAMREF products are lifted by its two offtakers — Saudi Aramco and ExxonMobil — and are shipped to destinations across the globe via the Yanbu export terminal on the Red Sea.

Strategic Expansion (2025)

In December 2025, ExxonMobil, Saudi Aramco, and SAMREF signed a Venture Framework Agreement (VFA) to evaluate a major upgrade and expansion of the SAMREF refinery into a fully integrated refining and petrochemical complex. The pre-FEED phase has been initiated, with the planned scope including maximization of liquids-to-chemicals conversion, production of high-performance chemicals, high-quality low-emission distillates, and an integrated emissions reduction program. A Final Investment Decision (FID) is subject to completion of pre-FEED, market conditions, and regulatory approvals.