Saudi Aramco’s industrial firefighting teams extinguished a fire that broke out early Sunday at a facility belonging to the company’s Jazan refinery, the Saudi Ministry of Energy said TurkicWorld reports via arabnews.
“The competent authorities are completing the necessary procedures to deal with the incident,” the ministry said in a statement posted on X, without providing details on the cause of the fire, its extent, or whether there were any casualties or damage.
The refinery complex is located in Jazan City in southwestern Saudi Arabia, near the border with Yemen. It is part of a major industrial development aimed at turning the region into a diversified economic hub.
Major refining and power complex
The Jazan Refinery Complex is one of Aramco’s key downstream projects, designed to process up to 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day. It produces fuels such as gasoline and ultra-low-sulfur diesel, as well as petrochemical products including benzene and paraxylene.
The facility is integrated with a large gasification and power-generation plant that converts lower-value refinery outputs into higher-value products while producing electricity and industrial gases.
The integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) plant has a capacity of up to 3.8 gigawatts, according to Aramco, supplying power for refinery operations and nearby industrial users, with surplus electricity intended for surrounding communities.
Integrated production system
The complex uses gasification technology to convert heavy refinery by-products into synthesis gas, or syngas, mainly composed of hydrogen. This hydrogen is used in refining processes to remove sulfur from fuels, enabling the production of cleaner gasoline and diesel.
Aramco has also highlighted energy-recovery systems that capture waste heat and steam from the gasification process to generate additional electricity, improving overall efficiency and reducing energy losses.
The company has described the facility as an example of integrated refining, power generation and by-product recovery aimed at improving operational efficiency and reducing emissions.
Economic significance
The Jazan project is part of a broader development plan launched in 2006 to establish a major industrial hub in the region. Aramco has estimated total investment in the complex at around $21 billion.
The project is expected to support more than 1,300 Saudi jobs and attract further industrial investment to the area. It also includes systems to recover metals such as nickel and vanadium from refinery ash, reducing waste sent to landfill.
Authorities have not said whether Sunday’s fire affected operations or production at the facility.
