Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced investing $3.1 billion in a project to upgrade the crude oil Ruwais Refinery, aiming to increase profitability margins in oil refining operations. The announcement of the project is another important step as ADNOC moves ahead with its Gas, Refining and Petrochemicals strategy, aiming to increase profitability margins through enhancing asset flexibility and operational activities supported by strong marketing initiatives for crude oil and products. “Enabling the Ruwais Refinery-West to process Upper Zakum, or similar, medium sour crude, in place of Murban light sweet crude, will allow us to extract greater value from our crude resources,” Abdulaziz Abdulla Alhajri, Director of ADNOC’s Downstream Directorate, said in comments posted on the company’s website. On that note, Samsung Engineering said its joint venture with CB&I Nederland, a global player in the technology and infrastructure services sector, has been awarded a major contract by ADNOC to build the crude flexibility project for its refining unit in the UAE capital. Samsung Engineering said at a value of $3.1 billion, it is the ninth award in total the company has received from ADNOC. According to the deal, the Samsung Engineering JV will construct a new atmospheric residue de-sulfurization (ARDS) facility, with a capacity of 177,000 barrels per day. It is due for handover by the end of 2022. The ARDS technology is used in upgrading medium to heavy petroleum oils and residues to more valuable clean environmentally friendly transportation fuels and to partially convert the residues to produce low-sulfur fuel oil and hydrotreated feedstocks, ADNOC said. Work will soon start on the project, which will come up at the Ruwais Industrial Complex - the largest industrial complex in the UAE. Samsung Engineering has previously delivered six projects in the Ruwais complex.