Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state- run oil company, plans a complete shutdown of the Ras Tanura refinery for a 45-day maintenance period starting Dec. 16, a person familiar with the facility’s plans said.

The refinery’s scheduled maintenance, called a turn-around and inspection, is set to last through the end of January, said the person, who asked not to be named because the work plan has not been made public.

Ras Tanura, on Saudi Arabia’s Persian Gulf coast, has a total oil processing capacity of 550,000 barrels a day, including a 325,000 barrel-a-day crude distillation unit, according to Aramco’s Web Site. Aramco said in a statement on the Web site Nov. 11 it would shut Ras Tanura’s asphalt unit, the company’s largest, from mid-December through January.

Saudi Arabia, holder of the world’s largest oil reserves and the biggest producer in the 12 member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, imports refined products like gasoline because it doesn’t have sufficient capacity to meet domestic demand.

The largest economy in the six member Gulf Cooperation Council plans to double domestic and international oil refining capacity by 2015, Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said in a speech at Beijing University Nov. 13. The kingdom increased crude output capacity to 12.5 million barrels a day in June, al-Naimi said.

GCC member states Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are also OPEC members. OPEC’s other members are Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, and Venezuela. GCC members Oman and Bahrain are not in OPEC.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anthony DiPaola in Dubai at adipaola@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 14, 2009 08:38 EST