Saudi Aramco and ConocoPhillips Wednesday signed a comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to conduct a detailed evaluation for the proposed development of a 400,000 barrel-per-day, full-conversion refinery in Yanbu', Saudi Arabia. The refinery would be designed to process Arabian heavy crude and produce high-quality, ultra-low sulfur refined products that meet current and future U.S. and European product specifications. The project is targeted to startup in 2011, Saudi Aramco said in a statement. The MOU sets forth the agreement between Saudi Aramco and ConocoPhillips regarding the key parameters of the project, the project configuration, and a broad range of the major technical, commercial, legal and financial terms. The proposed project represents an opportunity for the world's largest producer of hydrocarbons and ConocoPhillips to work together to construct a state-of-the-art, full-conversion, heavy crude refinery to serve multiple markets with high-quality, refined products in an environmentally sound manner. --MORE
