UAE: Downstream Projects Adnoc Commissions Specialised Coker Unit for Carbon Black and Coker Project

In line with the state-owned oil company’s Downstream strategy, the plant is expected to extract maximum value from heavy oils and slurry. The Carbon Black & Coker Project is anticipated to produce 40,600 tonnes of two different grades of Carbon black per year, and 430,000 tonnes of high value anode grade calcined coke.

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Abu Dhabi/UAE – Adnoc Refining, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), has recently announced that it has successfully completed the commissioning of a specialised coker unit, as part of its Carbon Black and Coker Project. With this, the company will extract the maximum value from ‘bottom-of-the-barrel’ heavy oils and slurry, as it delivers on its aggressive Downstream strategy.

The firm’s Carbon Black & Coker Project incorporates a coker, known in the oil and gas industry as a ‘delayed coker’ that will allow Adnoc Refining to recover highly specialised and valuable grades of carbon black and calcined coke. Not only will it create higher value from what would otherwise be used for low value fuel oil, but both products are essential to industrial processes within Adnoc subsidiaries and other UAE industries, potentially removing the need to import costly raw materials.

Increasing the flexibility of the firm’s refining assets to stretch the value of every barrel of oil – and produce additional feedstocks and additives for the petrochemical industry – is a key pillar of Adnoc’s Downstream expansion strategy. The strategy will see the company become a world-class producer, supplier and trader of refined and petrochemical products, as it focuses on growth markets in Asia, including China.

The firm’s multi-billion-dirham Downstream investment programme will see the company’s refining capacity increase by more than 65 %, or 600,000 bpd, by 2025, through the addition of a third refinery, creating a total capacity of 1.5 million barrels per day (mbpd). The new refinery will significantly increase the capability, flexibility and output of Abu Dhabi’s refining operations by adding to the range of crudes that can be processed. Adnoc also plans to build one of the world’s largest mixed feed crackers, which will enable it to produce additional feedstocks and additives for the petrochemicals industry.

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Abdulaziz Al Hajri, Director of Adnoc’s Downstream Directorate, said: “At the heart of our Downstream strategy is a 45 billion dollar investment, over the next five years, that will create the world’s largest integrated refining and petrochemicals hub in Ruwais, where Adnoc will convert 20 % of its crude to chemicals, tripling petrochemical production capacity to 14.4 million tonnes per year, by 2025. In parallel, the firm intends to build an international, integrated Downstream presence, including securing additional crude refining capacity in growth markets.”

The commissioning of the new coker unit coincided with the first production of green petroleum coke in the UAE. An intermediate product, Green petroleum coke can be further processed to produce either fuel oils, or calcine petroleum coke, a raw material used by the aluminium and steel industries.

Jasem Ali Al Sayegh, CEO of Adnoc Refining, said: “We are delighted to introduce technology that extracts more value from our downstream operations. The successful commissioning of the coker project, along with the production of the first Green coke created in the UAE, will improve the company’s margins by maximising value from every barrel of crude oil that we refine. By working with local petrochemicals and aluminium industries, and engaging new local and international customers for these high value products, we will deliver greater value to the UAE economy.”

Through the Carbon Black & Coker Project, Adnoc Refining can produce 40,600 tonnes of two different grades of Carbon black per year, and 430,000 tonnes of high value anode grade calcined coke. Borouge, a joint venture between Adnoc and Borealis, makes extensive use of special carbon black grades across a range of products, including high-pressure water and gas pipes, steel pipe coatings and linings, and standalone piping.

Calcined coke is a key ingredient in the anodes used in the electrolysis process that separates pure aluminum from bauxite ore. The UAE is the world’s sixth-largest aluminium producer, accounting for over 50 per cent of the Gulf’s aluminium production, with annual production of 2.6 million metric tonnes in 2017.

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