Page 9 - MEOG Week 45 2022

MEOG PROJECTS & COMPANIES MEOG

KIPIC launches first

phase of Al-Zour refinery

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

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