In April, Saudi Arabia inaugurated the expansion of the RasTanura refinery. The complex processes 310,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil.

Its $1.5 billion revamped units comprise 44,000 bpd hydrocracker, 60,000 bpd visbreaker and 40,000 bpd continuous catalytic reformer.

Ras Tanura's production currently includes 30 per cent of Saudi Arabia's gasoline, 30 per cent of its diesel and 45 per cent of its fuel oil.

Ras Tanura plans to shut one of its plants for ongoing maintenance at the end of 1999 but the work will not disrupt its operations, refinery officials have said.

Saudi Arabia's 292,000 export Jubail refinery is not planning any major maintenance during the rest of 1999. Refinery officials said there would be partial shutdowns in the fourth quarter of the year which will not hinder main operations.

The kingdom's 170,000 bpd Yanburefinery is not planning any major maintenance work or activities for the rest of this year, according to refinery officials.

Saudi Arabia's eight refineries export about 862,000 bpd of refined products.Qatar in February launched an $850 million expansion of the Gulf Arab state's Messai'eed refinery which is designed to raise capacity to 137,000 bpd by 2002 from the current level of 60,000 bpd. Some 18,000 bpd is consumed locally.

Qatar plans to shut down the refinery in November for one month to five weeks for maintenance.

Bahrain will spend some $800 million to upgrade its single ageing Sitra refinery. The upgrade of the 250,000 bpd facility would be carried out over a period of four years.

Officials at the 62-year-old refinery say no major maintenance work or shutdowns are planned for the rest of 1999. ``Maintenance work will probably start again during the first quarter of next year,'' said one.