Page 11 - DMEA Week 36 2021

DMEA REFINING DMEA

KNPC brings on more units at Mina Abdullah

MIDDLE EAST STATE-OWNED Kuwait National Petroleum al-Ahmadi refineries to a combined capacity
Corp. (KNPC) this week has announced that of 800,000 bpd. A 264,000 bpd crude distil-
it has launched three more units at its 454,000 lation unit (CDU) was brought on stream at
barrel per day (bpd) Mina Abdullah refinery as Mina Abdullah in December, while Petrofac
it nears the full launch of its giant Clean Fuels announced in early May that it had finished
Project (CFP). work on the 50,000 bpd hydrocracking unit 214
The latest additions are a continuous cata- at Mina Abdullah.
lytic reforming unit, a vacuum rerun unit and an According to KNPC, the CFP is “a major pil-
atmospheric residue desulphurisation (ARDS) lar in KNPC & KPC’s strategy that [is aimed] at
unit with a capacity of 50,000 bpd, according to raising the refining capacity of Kuwait to 1.4mn
company sources quoted by Argus. bpd in the medium [term] in addition to ful-
The sources said that the units have been filling the highest possible rate of energy pro-
brought into operation during the last 14 days. cessing at local refineries to meet the local and
They added that the catalytic reformer will be fed international demand of high-quality petroleum
with around 18,000 bpd of naphtha to generate products.”
high-octane reformate, hydrogen, light naphtha The facilities will come into operation gradu-
and LPG; the ARDS will yield around 42,000 bpd ally, with full commissioning envisaged in 2022.
of low-sulphur atmospheric residue (LSAR), Meanwhile, fellow KPC subsidiary Kuwait
2,000 bpd of naphtha and more than 8,000 bpd Integrated Petroleum Industries Co. (KIPIC)
of diesel; and the vacuum rerun unit will be fed is nearing completion on the project it was set
with around 50,000 bpd of LSAR to produce up to manage, the new Al-Zour refinery that is
trim gasoil, vacuum gasoil and vacuum residue. expected to come on stream in November. Add-
The sources also told Argus that another unit ing a further 615,000 bpd to Kuwait’s refining
would be commissioned soon. capacity, the project is estimated to cost around
In early June, KNPC, the downstream-fo- $16.1bn, including the cost of associated petro-
cused subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corp. chemical and LNG facilities.
(KPC), announced the completion of a new Movement on the development has sped up
hydrocracking unit at the Mina Abdullah refin- of late and London-listed Technip Energies was
ery, signalling the finalisation of work on the last week awarded a six-year contract for engi-
$15.7bn CFP. Completion of the works was neering and management services across the
effected a month ahead of its updated schedule. Al-Zour complex.
KNPC said that work had been finalised on The project was reported to have reached
hydrocracking unit 114, a 70,000 bpd facility that 97.83% completion in February.
will produce low-sulphur diesel and kerosene to KIPIC had set a target commissioning date
meet European standards. of late 2020, but pushed this back to Q1 2021 as
The CFP comprises the upgrade and 264,000 restrictions relating to coronavirus (COVID-19)
bpd expansion of Mina Abdullah and the Mina slowed progress.™

Week 36 09•September•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P11