Page 9 - MEOG Week 28
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MEOG ProJeCts & ComPanIes MEOG
Iranian South Oil Co. indigenises parts
Iran
NATIONAL Iranian South Oil Co. (NISOC) has localised parts used in gas turbines due to the ongoing sanctions imposed on working with local companies by the US, SHANA reported on July 7.
Iranian engineers have had to get creative over the past three decades as many of their pre-revolutionary American and european machinery has either ultimately failed a er long usage or poor maintenance.
is latest example shows the e ects of sanc- tions on the functioning state of the country’s once-powerful oil industry.
Saeed Aminizadeh, director of logistics and commodity a airs at the company, said it had
developed the 15 discs inside air compressors in the turbines together with the main body that holds and directs hot gases in the turbines.
The official said the parts were made of heat-resistant, high-precision super-alloys which were developed by local manufacturers.
He did not name the companies involved in reverse-engineering the parts but stated they were part of the “knowledge-based companies”, often a by-word for specialised engineering start-ups.
He added that the components are a type of turbine used widely in oil-rich areas that provide power to process pumps and gas injection com- pressors with a capacity of more than 14 MW.
Kuwati refining project at risk of further delay
kuWaIt
KUWAIT is likely to once again push back the launch of its long-delayed al-Zour re nery pro- ject, sources told Argus on July 6, because of impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
e re nery in the southern port of al-Zour, had been due to come on stream in the fourth quarter of this year. It will be capable of process- ing up to 615,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, making it the largest re nery in the Middle east.
The project, with a budget of KWD3.7bn ($12bn), is being managed by KIPeC, a subsidi- ary of state-owned KPC. e subsidiary’s acting CeO Hatem al-Awadhi said last month that con- struction was more than 95% complete.
According to Argus, though, several services rms and contractors hired have invoked forces majeures, as restrictions on movement and pub- lic gatherings mean they have been unable to receive equipment and complete work on time. KPC has established a team to address the issue, sources said, and negotiations with contractors are continuing. It is also reviewing whether COVID-19 can be considered a force majeure event.
Kuwait began imposing restrictions on air travel and land movement in mid-March, not long after the country reported its first con- rmed cases of the virus. is included a full suspension of international ights to and from
Kuwait International Airport on March 13, besides repatriation ights and air cargo,
Kuwaiti authorities announced this month that commercial passenger flights would be resumed on August 1, as part of a ve-phase plan to ease all restrictions by mid-September.
e al-Zour re nery to bolster Kuwait’s over- all oil-processing capacity from around 800,000 bpd to 1.415mn bpd. e country is also upgrad- ing its existing Mine al-Ahmadi and Mina Abdullah re neries, not only to boost capacity to 1.6mn bpd by 2025, but also to produce more higher-value products such as diesel and kero- sene that can be exported.
Week 28 15•July•2020 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P9
