Ras Tanura From Teakettle Refinery to Leading Oil

Workers loading dhows with cargo at Ras Tanura coast before the wharf construction, 1936-37. Ras Tanura, a long, low sand spit jutting out into the Gulf and the former site of an Ottoman coaling station, was chosen as the site of Casoc’s port.
 

Photographer: Richard “Dick” Kerr

King ‘Abd al-‘Aziz reads congratulatory cables handed to him by Floyd W. Ohliger, an early Aramco “pioneer” at Ras Tanura’s opening ceremony, which included the company’s first export of crude, on May 1, 1939.
 
This 3,000 barrel/day “teakettle” refinery was completed on the spit of Ras Tanura in 1940 but was later dismantled.

 

Photographer: R. Y. Ritchie

Construction of the 50,000 b/d Ras Tanura Refinery dominated company activities in the immediate postwar years. The Bechtel McCone Unit crude stills are shown in this photo taken in the summer of 1946, less than one year after the refinery opened.
 
Since its beginning more than 60 years ago, Ras Tanura Refinery, seen here, has grown into one of the most complex in the world, with a distillation capacity of 550,000 bpd of crude oil and gas condensates, and consisting of an NGL plant, crude stabilization, water desalination, electrical power and steam generating facilities. Ras Tanura Refinery produces about 40 percent of the Kingdom’s fuels, primarily gasoline, kerosene, diesel and fuel oil. On May 12, 2007, Saudi Aramco and Dow Chemical Co. signed a Memorandum of Understanding to study the construction, ownership and operation of a world-scale chemicals and plastics production complex, the Ras Tanura Integrated Project.
 
The Ras Tanura tank farm stores millions of barrels of crude oil for delivery by tanker to terminals around the world.

 
The world calls for energy at Ras Tanura Sea Island Terminal, which can service the largest crude and LPG tankers afloat. Roughly 5 million barrels of oil are loaded on takers every day at Ras Tanura alone, equivalent to one-fourth of the daily U.S. consumption. In the background is the tank farm.