Kuwait Petroleum Corp.’s (KPC) newly formed subsidiary Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Co.(KIPIC) has let a contract to Honeywell UOP LLC to provide a range of process technologies for the already proposed expansion of KIPIC’s grassroots 615,000-b/d Al-Zour refinery complex still under construction in southern Kuwait (OGJ Online, Aug. 5, 2016).
Honeywell UOP, as part of the contract, will supply technology licenses, design services, key equipment, and proprietary catalysts and adsorbents for a selection of units designed to produce clean-burning fuels conforming to Euro 5 standards, as well as paraxylene, propylene, and other petrochemicals, the service provider said.
Honeywell UOP’s scope of delivery for the project will include:
• A 50,000-b/d RFCC complex equipped with ethylene and propylene recovery.
• A 24,000-b/d Honeywell UOP Selectfining unit to produce low-sulfur gasoline.
• Two Honeywell UOP Merox units to treat propane for propylene production, and isobutane to make clean-fuels blending components, including methyl tertiary butyl ether that will be produced by a UOP Ethermax unit.
• A Butamer unit to convert normal butane to isobutane.
• A 66,000-b/d UOP continuous catalyst regeneration (CCR) platforming unit as well as a 74,000-b/d naphtha hydrotreater to make gasoline blend stock.
• An LD Parex aromatics complex that includes the Honeywell UOP Sulfolane, Isomar, and Tatoray proprietary processes for production of 1.4 million tonnes/year of paraxylene.
• An Oleflex propane dehydrogenation unit that will produce 660,000 tpy of polymer-grade propylene.
Neither KIPIC nor Honeywell UOP disclosed a value of the latest contract or a timeline for the proposed expansion project’s completion.
Part of Kuwait’s Clean Fuels Project to upgrade, expand, and transform the 270,000-b/d Mina Abdullah and 466,000-b/d Mina Al Ahmadi refineries into an integrated 800,000 b/d merchant refining complex, the long-planned Al-Zour refinery remains on schedule for commissioning sometime in 2018-19 (OGJ Online, Aug. 24, 2017; Oct. 27, 2016).
KPC subsidiary Kuwait National Petroleum Co. officially shuttered its 200,000-b/d Shuaiba refinery on Apr. 1 (OGJ Online, July 31, 2017).
KPC formed KIPIC in late 2016 to manage refinery, petrochemicals, and LNG import operations in the Al-Zour complex. Also charged with securing Kuwait’s local demand for energy and contributing to growth of the private sector, KIPIC is Kuwait’s first integrated downstream company as well as the KPC arm responsible for achieving integration between the refining and petrochemical industries, KPC said.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
