Page 10 - DMEA Week 30 2022

DMEA PETROCHEMICALS DMEA

KIPIC petchem feasibility

study nearing completion

MIDDLE EAST UK-BASED consultancy Wood Mackenzie is provide part of the funding.
expected to complete a feasibility study for a KIPIC – a downstream subsidiary of the
long-delayed petrochemical project in Kuwait Kuwait Petroleum Co. (KPC) set up to oversee
by the end of Q3. the development and management of Al-Zour
The news comes just a month after test runs – said previously that it would fund around 30%
began at the new Al-Zour refinery with which of the petrochemicals project, and would look to
the petchems project will be integrated. tap banks for the remainder, appointing Sumi-
According to the local Alrai Arabic-language tomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC) as a finan-
newspaper, the study is expected to provide the cial advisor in 2019 to arrange a $4.9bn loan.
basis for state-owned developer Kuwait Inte- The refining and petrochemicals elements
grated Petroleum Industries Co. (KIPIC) to have both faced lengthy delays with the refinery
proceed with the project, which is seen costing originally envisioned reaching commissioning
around $8-10bn. in late 2020, with this pushed back first to 2021,
This is on top of the estimated $16.1bn cost then this year owing to stringent restrictions
to develop the 615,000-barrel per day (bpd) related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
refinery where test runs began at one of its three Last year, the world-scale petrochemical
205,000-bpd crude distillation units (CDUs) last facility was still targeting a 2023 completion
month. ahead of start-up in 2024.
Alrai reported that “project costs have sharply The petchems arm is intended to produce
increased over the past years because of the surge around 2.8mn tonnes per year (tpy) of petro-
in transport costs and the prices of building chemicals. This includes 1.4mn tpy of parax-
materials, mainly steel,” adding that “another ylene (PX), 940,000 tpy of polypropylene (PP)
obstacle” is in identifying a strategic partner to and 420,000 tpy of gasoline.™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 30 28•July•2022