From crude intake to certified clean fuel.
Crude arrives, is separated by boiling point, then cleaned of sulphur and blended into finished products. Below is how that happens at 615,000 barrels a day.
The eight stages
- 01
Crude receipt and storage
Domestic crude grades arrive by pipeline and marine berth and are settled in the tank farm, where water and sediment separate out before processing.
- 02
Desalting and preheat
Salts and residual water are washed out to protect downstream metallurgy, then the crude is heated against hot product streams to recover energy.
- 03
Atmospheric distillation
Three identical 205,000 bpd crude distillation units separate the crude by boiling range into gases, naphtha, kerosene, diesel and atmospheric residue.
- 04
Vacuum distillation and conversion
Heavier residue is distilled under vacuum and converted, lifting the yield of transport fuels instead of leaving low-value bottoms.
- 05
Hydrotreating
Diesel, kerosene and naphtha streams are reacted with hydrogen over catalyst to strip sulphur and nitrogen down to ultra-low-sulphur specification.
- 06
Sulphur recovery
Hydrogen sulphide removed during treating is converted to elemental sulphur — a saleable solid product instead of an atmospheric emission.
- 07
Blending and certification
Component streams are blended to grade and tested in the laboratory for sulphur, density, flash point and cold-flow properties before release.
- 08
Storage and marine export
Certified product moves to dedicated tankage, then to power-station pipelines domestically or to berths for loading onto export tankers.
Why three identical trains
Splitting 615,000 bpd across three matched crude units means one train can be shut down for maintenance while the other two keep running at full rate. Availability stays high and turnarounds do not stop supply to the power grid.
Identical trains also simplify operations: the same procedures, spare parts and operator training apply to all three, which shortens start-up and reduces the chance of human error.
What comes out
- Low-sulphur fuel oil
- ≈225,000 bpd to domestic power generation
- Ultra-low sulphur diesel & jet
- ≈340,000 bpd, export specification
- Naphtha and light ends
- Feedstock for future petrochemical integration
- Elemental sulphur
- Recovered solid product for industrial markets