Fourth Saudi underground storage open

Dubai: Saudi Arabia has opened its fourth underground oil-storage terminal to enable the kingdom to deliver oil products in emergency situations.

The facility, inaugurated on November 26, is in the west of the country in Medina, close to the Yanbu refinery on the Red Sea. It is part of the Saudi Strategic Storage Programme, Saudi Aramco said.


The site, which includes lubricating-oil storage, a power-generation area and a product-pumping station, receives petroleum products from Yanbu through a 162-kilometre pipeline.

The underground caves can store gasoline, jet fuel and diesel, Saudi Aramco said, without disclosing the size of the facility.