Enoc to start upgraded refinery in April this year

Dubai's government-owned refiner Emirates National Oil Company (Enoc) aims to start its upgraded Jebel Ali refinery in April, the group's chief executive officer said yesterday.

Enoc began commissioning units at the plant in December after completing the $850 million (Dh3.1bn) overhaul. The project's initial budget was around $500m, but Jebel Ali, like many other energy projects worldwide, suffered cost inflation as oil ran up to a record high near $150 a barrel in 2008.

"Sequential commissioning is expected to be completed by April this year. The refinery is of 120,000 bbls/day capacity," Enoc Group's CEO Saeed Khoory said in a statement.

The upgrade would allow Enoc to convert naphtha to reformate, and give it capacity to produce 40,000 bpd of the gasoline component. The upgrade has added a reformer and a hydrotreater to the plant.

It would also produce sweet naphtha with a sulphur content of five parts per million and a high paraffin content, according to the statement.

The full capacity of the refinery will be 120,000 barrels per day (bpd), and it would operate at 80 per cent capacity in the first quarter, he said.

Last year, Enoc tried to gain control over Dragon Oil which operates mainly in oil and gas-rich Turkmenistan, in a move to boost assets to meet rising domestic energy demands.

However, shareholders of the firm rejected Enoc's $1.9bn acquisition bid for 48.5 per cent of the Dragon stock it did not already own.

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