The Ras Lanuf Refinery is a topping and reforming

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, lique ...

Ras Lanuf Ras Lanuf ( ( ar, راس لانوف , also: ''Ra’s al-Unūf'' )) is a Mediterranean town in northern Libya, on the Gulf of Sidra. The town is also home to the Ra's Lanuf Refinery, completed in 1984, with a crude oil refining capacity of . The oil ...

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

. It is part of a larger petrochemical complex also consisting of an

ethylene Ethylene (IUPAC name: ethene) is a hydrocarbon which has the formula or . It is a colourless, flammable gas with a faint "sweet and musky" odour when pure. It is the simplest alkene (a hydrocarbon with carbon-carbon double bonds). Ethylene i ...

plant, a

polyethylene Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most commonly produced plastic. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging ( plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including bo ...

plant, plant utilities, and Ra's Lanuf Harbor. Until 9 March 2009, the complex was operated by the

RASCO Keida Brewer (born September 6, 1970), known professionally as Rasco (a bacronym for "Realistic, Ambitious, Serious, Cautious, and Organized"), is an American rapper. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Rasco became associated with hip hop in California. ...

, a subsidiary of the

National Oil Corporation The National Oil Corporation (NOC; ar, المؤسسة الوطنية للنفط) is the national oil company of Libya. It dominates Libya's oil industry, along with a number of smaller subsidiaries, which combined account for around 70% the cou ...

. The current operator is the Libyan Emirates Oil Refining Company.

History

The Ra's Lanuf Refinery became operational during 1984. In 2007, the decision to expand the refinery for the production of

benzene Benzene is an organic chemical compound with the molecular formula C6H6. The benzene molecule is composed of six carbon atoms joined in a planar ring with one hydrogen atom attached to each. Because it contains only carbon and hydrogen atoms, ...

butadiene 1,3-Butadiene () is the organic compound with the formula (CH2=CH)2. It is a colorless gas that is easily condensed to a liquid. It is important industrially as a precursor to synthetic rubber. The molecule can be viewed as the union of two viny ...

, and

MTBE Methyl ''tertiary''-butyl ether (MTBE), also known as methyl tert-butyl ether and ''tert''-butyl methyl ether, is an organic compound with a structural formula (CH3)3COCH3. MTBE is a volatile, flammable, and colorless liquid that is sparingly sol ...

was made. For this, NOC concluded a contract to establish a joint venture with

Dow Chemical Company The Dow Chemical Company, officially Dow Inc., is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. The company is among the three largest chemical producers in the world. Dow manufactures plastic ...

. In 2008, a $2 billion contract with the Star Consortium, comprising the

Al Ghurair AL, Al, Ål or al may stand for: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Al (''Aladdin'') or Aladdin, the main character in Disney's ''Aladdin'' media * Al (''EastEnders''), a minor character in the British soap opera * Al (''Fullmetal ...

's subsidiary TransAsia Gas International and ETA Ascon Star Group's Star Petro Energy, to own and upgrade the refinery was concluded. However, in March 2009, NOC and Al Ghurair's subsidiary Trusta signed an agreement to form a joint venture the Libyan Emirati Refining Company (Lerco) to operate and upgrade the refinery. Additional storage tanks were to be built by

Vitol Vitol is a Swiss-based multinational energy and commodity trading company that was founded in Rotterdam in 1966 by Henk Viëtor and Jacques Detiger. Though trading, logistics and distribution are at the core of its business, these are complemente ...

, with the expansion expected to be completed by 2013.

Description

The refinery has a capacity of . It is a simple

hydroskimming Hydroskimming is one of the simplest types of Oil refinery, refinery used in the petroleum industry and still represents a large proportion of refining facilities, particularly in developing countries. A hydroskimming refinery is defined as a refin ...

refinery, but its products meet market specifications due to the use of high quality

crude oil Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...

. It produces

fuel oil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bun ...

gas oil Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma). A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or ...

naphtha Naphtha ( or ) is a flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture. Mixtures labelled ''naphtha'' have been produced from natural gas condensates, petroleum distillates, and the distillation of coal tar and peat. In different industries and regions ''n ...

and

kerosene Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...

. The complex also produces

petrochemicals Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sou ...

, utilizing naphtha as a

feed stock Feed or The Feed may refer to: Animal foodstuffs * Animal feed, food given to domestic animals in the course of animal husbandry ** Fodder, foodstuffs manufactured for animal consumption ** Forage, foodstuffs that animals gather themselves, su ...

for an

plant with a capacity of 1.2 million tons per year (tpy). Its main products are ethylene (330,000 tpy),

propylene Propylene, also known as propene, is an unsaturated organic compound with the chemical formula CH3CH=CH2. It has one double bond, and is the second simplest member of the alkene class of hydrocarbons. It is a colorless gas with a faint petrole ...

(170,000 tpy), Mix C4 (130,000 tpy) and P Gasoline (335,000 tpy).

Notes

{{Portal, Libya, Energy Ras Lanuf Oil refineries in Libya Tripolitania