Reuters reported that state oil giant Saudi Aramco unexpectedly shut a secondary unit at its 305,000 barrels per day JV refinery in Jubail which caused the refiner to offer a rare high sulphur gasoil cargo.

The Saudi Aramco Shell Refinery Company in Jubail shut its hydrotreater unit about 2 or 3 days ago due to a glitch. But details of the hydrotreater's capacity or the reason for the shutdown were not clear. Hydrotreaters are used to remove sulphur from high sulphur gasoil to make it a more environmentally friendly fuel.

Traders said that Saudi Aramco offered about 60,000 tonnes of 0.5% sulphur gasoil from the Jubail refinery for loading over August 18th to20th 2012 through private negotiations.

Saudi Arabia is a net importer of lower sulphur diesel during summer when the fuel is used for power generation. The country has bought at least 750,000 tonnes for the whole of June and July this year.

Source - Reuters

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