Saudi Aramco overhauled Muajjiz oil terminal on Red Sea
Saudi Aramco says in 2018, the overhauled Muajjiz oil terminal located on the Red Sea will be reopened, which will boost export capacity of Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant to as much as 15 million barrels per day (b/d).
The Muajjiz oil terminal has been used as an export terminal for crude from Iraqi crude pumped through the Iraqi Pipeline in Saudi Arabia (IPSA). The pipeline has not carried crude from Iraq since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990.
In 2001, Saudi Arabia confiscated the pipeline as compensation for debts owed by Baghdad and Riyadh had used the pipeline to transport gas to power plants in the western part of the country for years.
In 2012, the line was tested to run crude and the reopening of the Muajjiz oil terminal will allow Saudi Arabia to export oil via the Red Sea.
In retaliation against Western sanctions imposed against Tehran in 2012, Iran has threatened to block the narrow Strait of Hormuz that links the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. The Strait of Hormuz is the transportation route for 40 per cent of the world’s seaborne exports.
Mohammed al-Qahtani, Aramco’s senior vice president for upstream, told Reuters the oil terminal would boost the kingdom’s oil handling capacity to 15 million b/d, up from its current 11.5 million b/d capacity.
The terminal will accommodate increased fuel oil and supply volumes of Arabian Heavy crude to the Yasref, Jazan and Jiddah local refineries.
“Restoring operations at al-Muajjiz will offer Saudi Aramco more flexibility in terms of its crude oil and product sales, and traffic configuration out of the Red Sea without affecting its intense operations out of the Arabian Gulf, which are largely dedicated to the Asian markets,” Sadad al-Husseini, a former Aramco senior executive and now an energy consultant told Reuters.
