Page 11 - DMEA Week 45 2022

DMEA PIPELINES DMEA

Habib Mnyaa, an EALA member from Tanza- after the kick-off of the COP27 international
nia, also stressed that the EACOP host nations climate summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The
were trying to shed their reliance on foreign aid UN-sponsored event has drawn attention to
and stated that both host states would seek to EACOP and the Lake Albert Development Pro-
reduce the emissions intensity of the pipeline ject (LADP), which envisions the development
project via carbon capture and use solutions of the Ugandan oilfields that will be used to fill
(CCUS). the 1,443-km pipeline.
“We are always trying to find means to be Ugandan Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa
independent, not dependent,” he said. “In many said last week that Kampala expects those fields
accounts, we see that we rely on donor funding. to start production in April 2025. She also indi-
Carbon dioxide today in this modern world cated that Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu
is used in many things, including processing Hassan was expected to visit China in the near
fertilisers.” future to discuss options for funding the $4bn
The EALA members were speaking shortly EACOP project. ™

REFINING & FUELS
KIPIC starts first phase of al-Zour refinery

MIDDLE EAST KUWAIT Integrated Petroleum Industries the completion of six planned residential com-
Co. (KIPIC), a subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum munities would drive the Electricity Ministry’s
Corp. (KPC), said on November 6 that it had demand for petroleum products higher in the
officially launched the first phase of the al-Zour long term.
refinery, a newbuild plant with a throughput However, the Kuwait Society of Engineers
capacity of 615,000 barrels per day (bpd). has pointed out in a study that this expecta-
KIPIC announced the start-up in a post on tion was overstated, partly because only one of
Twitter, saying that the plant had begun to pro- the planned communities was built and partly
duce and sell low-sulphur fuel oil (LSFO) for because the ministry opted to make greater use
delivery to local thermal power plants (TPPs) of natural gas as fuel for power generation. ™
last month. The refinery is designed to process
heavy crude oil from Kuwaiti fields and will turn
out kerosene, jet fuel and naphtha feedstock for
petrochemical production as well as LSFO, it
reported.
Thus far, the plant has only delivered fuel to
local customers. However, two sources close to
the matter told Reuters earlier this week that
KIPIC was on track to export its first cargo of
petroleum products around mid-November.
The company will send a shipment of 40,000
tonnes of naphtha to a buyer in Asia, the sources
said.
As of press time, the sources’ information
could not be confirmed.
Waleed El Bader, KIPIC’s CEO, noted that
the al-Zour plant was the largest refinery in
Kuwait. The new facility’s throughput capacity
is due to rise even higher and will eventually
expand to 800,000 bpd after the second and
third phases are brought online, he said.
KPC began making plans for the al-Zour
refinery in 2004. However, the project has run
into repeated delays, and construction fell far
behind schedule. To date, Kuwaiti authorities
have spent almost $16bn on the refinery, which
has yet to deliver on its promise of creating thou-
sands of new jobs and meeting a large portion of
domestic demand for HSFO.
Part of the original justification for the
Kuwaiti Supreme Petroleum Council’s decision
to approve the project was the expectation that Zour refinery, shown in late September (Photo: Twitter/@kipicofficial)

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