Samsung Engineering wins Aramco lubricants JV expansion

South Korea’s Samsung Engineering has been awarded the contract to double the capacity of a Luberef lubricating base oil refinery in Yanbu that is majority-owned by Saudi Aramco. Samsung competed against another South Korean firm, Hyundai Engineering and Construction, Italy’s Saipem and Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas for the project estimated at US$1 billion. The financial terms of the bid were not revealed.
Luberef said that commercial production from the expansion is expected to start in the fourth quarter of 2015. Luberef, which is 70% owned by Saudi Aramco and 30% by Saudi Jadwa Industrial Investment, produces around 550,000 tons per year of lubricating base oil at its two refineries along the Red Sea coast in Jeddah and Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.