Chemical Engineering Department visit to Saudi Aramco Strategic Storage and Abha Bulk Plant

Each semester the Faculty of Engineering under the supervision of the Dean of the College Dr. Ibrahim Falki arranges the industrial field visits. In this semester also a group of graduating students of the Department of Chemical Engineering visited to Aramco Strategic Storage Company on 09th April, 2019 in Abha under the supervision of Dr. Atef El Jery and Dr. Yasser Fahmy. The aim of this visit was to identify the advanced systems ascribing to the methods and stages adopted in the storage and distribution of oil and gas. Strategic storage is located in north of Abha city in Asir region of the kingdom. This facility is supplied with petroleum products from the Jazan distribution station via a 245 km pipeline through Asir mountain ranges. The petroleum products are pumped from the storage site to the distribution station via a 7 km pipeline for local consumption since 1424 AH. Strategic storage and distribution are amongst the most important places in the region. The storage facility is well equipped with health and safety standards. This visit was a great success as our students received detail information about the facility from the integrated team that oversees the distribution process in the strategic stores. The students received a warm welcome and encouragement from the group of members of Saudi Aramco. The program began with the screening of a film about Saudi Aramco's energy from storage to distribution. The aim of Saudi Arabia is to develop a safe and secure system to ensure the protection of petroleum products and secure the needs of safe distribution of petroleum products in times of crisis and emergency.  The importance of oil and gas and their derivatives are paramount as they are used  in many vital activities such as extracting pure water from the land, desalination, civil and military transportation, and the generation of electricity on which all industries depend. As oil installations are usually subject to sabotage or natural disasters, it is necessary to consider developing a safe and efficient system aimed at protecting these facilities and providing petroleum products permanently to all vital facilities and sectors under different circumstances. The main site of the project is about 40 km north of Abha city. The pipeline runs about 240 kilometers long and has two pumping stations, pumping sea-level products to the high mountains up to 2,800 meters, through a tunnel that crosses the mountains. It contains a nuclear, chemical and biological bomb-protected area. It also contains the main control room through which all the station equipment and systems can be operated automatically and equipped with the main computers, which are connected to Saudi Aramco computers to know the size of the stored products and all environmental matters. The system is also linked to the Ministry of Defense and Aviation in Riyadh so that the Ministry is kept informed of the size of strategic stocks. In the end, the accompanying doctors expressed their thanks and appreciation to the team supervising the station for valuable information that they shared with our students.