KHOBAR: A new chief executive officer has been named for a venture between state oil giant Saudi Aramco and France's Total, industry sources said on Monday. Said al-Hadrami, a board member of Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Company (SATORP) replaces Salem Shaheen as president and chief executive of SATORP, sources said. A company spokesperson could not be reached for comment. The oil majors teamed up in 2006 to build 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) crude refinery in Jubail, on the Gulf coast. Shaheen was appointed president and CEO of SATORP in 2008 as contractors started bidding for the construction of the refinery. Shaheen may join the Oil Ministry as an adviser, sources said. Jubail is among the new plants planned by Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, as it looks to boost domestic refining capacity. Aramco and Total signed last year deals to build the refinery due to start up in 2013. The refinery would process half of the daily output of Saudi Arabia's Moneefa 900,000 bpd oilfield. It would produce around 190,000 bpd of diesel, around 90,000 bpd of gasoline and 50,000 bpd of kerosene. Aramco owns 62.5 percent of the plant, while Total holds the rest. But an initial public offering (IPO) scheduled to take place in two to three years will leave Aramco with an equal stake as Total.
