Reuters reported that Saudi Aramco restarted a secondary unit at its 305,000 barrels per day JV refinery with Royal Dutch Shell in Jubail.

Mr Abdullah al Baiz JV's CEO said that "The unit is back to normal. Hydrotreaters are used to remove sulphur from high sulphur gasoil to make it a more environmentally friendly fuel.

Industry sources said that Saudi Aramco Shell Refinery Company (Sasref) had shut its hydrotreater unit due to a glitch a few days earlier.

The unexpected shutdown caused the refiner to offer a rare high sulphur gasoil cargo of about 60,000 tonnes of 0.5% sulphur gasoil from the Jubail refinery for loading over August 18th to 20th 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.

Sasref, which is a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Shell Saudi Arabia Refining Limited last shut a hydrocracker unit at the Jubail refinery in late June early July for a couple of days.

Source - Reuters

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