SAUDI ARABIA. Saudi Arabia on 26 November inaugurated the latest in the Kingdom’s series of strategic storage sites.

On behalf of HRH Crown Prince Sultan ibn Abdulaziz Al-Saud, Minister of Defence and Aviation, Inspector-General and President of the Saudi Strategic Storage Program, HRH Prince Abdulaziz ibn Majid ibn Abdulaziz, Amir of the Medina Area, attended the inauguration of the Medina Strategic Storage Project.

The Amir, joined by other officials and programme employees, conducted an inspection of the underground facilities and heard an introduction by Usama As’ad Abu Khidr, Manager of the Medina site.

A documentary explained the Saudi Strategic Storage Programme and its objectives. Then at the appointed time, the Amir pressed a button and unveiled the monument to officially inaugurate the site. HE Musa‘id A Al-Sa’igh, Director General of the Saudi Strategic Storage Programme, gave the Amir a memento of the occasion.

Khalid G Al-Buainain, Senior Vice President of Refining, Marketing and International, in a speech delivered on behalf of Saudi Aramco President and CEO Abdallah S Jum‘ah, said the storage site and facilities in Medina were part of an integrated whole that enhances the oil-product distribution network. He added that the proximity of Medina to Yanbu’ Refinery, with its pipeline between the bulk plant and refinery, guaranteed easy movement of petroleum products to cities, towns and villages in the area.

Locating the project in Medina, he added, achieved efficiency and cost-effectiveness while delivering oil products to consumers at the right time and at a reasonable cost.

Al-Buainain enumerated the benefits of placing strategic-reserve locations throughout the Kingdom. The added storage capacity, he said, supports the distribution of fuel in the Kingdom, where and when it is needed. That has been proved in some locations when local market requirements have been met during seasonal and emergency circumstances. Strategic storage also provides operational efficiency and greater flexibility in normal circumstances, and helps in the scheduling of refinery maintenance, which can be done without causing fuel shortages.

Al-Buainain said one of the most important economic benefits, taken into account during planning for the project, has been the ability to manage products to maintain stability of local demand and thereby maintain stability for the businesses and utilities that depended on oil products.

Al-Buainain spoke about the huge role the project has played in qualifying and developing Saudi workers who were able to take responsibility for the supply, operation and maintenance of this huge, vital national project.

Saudi employment at the sites is 98%, he said. “They face the project’s challenges and difficulties with high operational and technical capabilities, having received extensive training and achieving the levels of efficiency and performance sought by the participating entities.”

In conclusion, Al-Buainain thanked the teams - whether from the Saudi Strategic Storage Programme, the project executing company or Saudi Aramco - for the hard work that took the project to this advanced stage within the specified time and under the most up-to-date safety criteria.

Al-Sa’igh thanked the Kingdom’s leaders for their attention, through this project, to the protection of the country’s valuable resources, most important of which is oil, which he called the core of economic growth.

“There is a real treasure and an additional objective that has been realized,” he said. “It is the creation of a technical work force, with all kinds of specialisations, that ventured into this new field of designing and executing huge underground projects.”

The Medina site receives petroleum products from Yanbu’ Refinery through a 162 kilometre pipeline. The underground storage area includes storage caves for three types of refined, ready-to-use fuel: gasoline, jet fuel and diesel.

The site includes lubricating-oil storage, a power-generation area, a product pumping station, a service area with an underground control building and its facilities, and surface support services.

This integration between Saudi Aramco facilities and the previously inaugurated strategic storage sites in Riyadh, Jeddah and Abha have resulted in the ability to store the largest quantity of refined products underground.

In preparation for the project, the management of the Saudi Strategic Storage Programme, in cooperation with Saudi Aramco and other agencies from outside the Kingdom, conducted research to determine the correct specifications for products stored underground in order to ensure quality for the longest time possible.

Results of those tests showed that stored products could maintain their specifications for more than five years.

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