Kuwait advances expansion of Al-Zour integrated refining complex
Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC) subsidiary Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Co. (KIPIC) has let a contract to Honeywell UOP LLC to complete the reconfiguration of refining and petrochemicals sections of KIPIC’s grassroots 615,000-b/d Al-Zour integrated refining and petrochemical complex under construction in southern Kuwait (OGJ Online, June 21, 2018).
As part of the contract, Honeywell UOP will revise the configuration and capacity of the refinery’s gasoline production installations, as well as supply technology licenses, design services, key equipment, and catalysts and adsorbents to produce clean-burning fuels, paraxylene, propylene, and other petrochemicals, the service provider said.
The refinery’s gasoline section will include the following:
• A 98,000-b/d RFCC complex for production of propylene, gasoline, and petrochemical aromatics.
• A UOP Selectfining unit to produce low-sulfur gasoline blending components.
• Two UOP Merox units to treat propane for propylene production and isobutane to make clean-fuel blending components.
• An 11,800-b/d Butamer unit to convert normal butane to isobutane.
The petrochemicals section will consist of an aromatics complex capable of producing 1.4 million tonnes/year of paraxylene using the latest generation LD Parex aromatics technology, including the Sulfolane, Isomar, and Tatoray processes.
The CCR Platforming unit and naphtha hydrotreater also will be expanded to meet the needs of the larger gasoline and aromatics complexes.
“When completed, this will be the largest integrated refinery and petrochemicals plant ever constructed in Kuwait. In addition to aromatics and propylene, the Euro-5 fuels it will produce will be the cornerstone of Kuwait’s clean fuels initiative,” said Jim Moshi, general manager for Honeywell UOP’s Middle East business.
Confirmation of the latest contract follows KIPIC’s earlier award to Honeywell UOP for a range of process technologies for the previously proposed expansion of the Al-Zour integrated complex (OGJ Online, Nov. 27, 2017).
KIPIC most recently said the first unit of the Al-Zour integrated complex is scheduled to be completed by May, with pipelines for delivery of feedstock to the refinery to be ready by October (OGJ Online, Apr. 22, 2019).
The long-planned Al-Zour complex is the grassroots undertaking that forms part of Kuwait’s Clean Fuels Project (CFP), which also includes a program 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 (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 as part of the CFP (OGJ Online, July 31, 2017).
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
Robert Brelsford | Downstream Editor
Robert Brelsford joined Oil & Gas Journal in October 2013 as downstream technology editor after 8 years as a crude oil price and news reporter on spot crude transactions at the US Gulf Coast, West Coast, Canadian, and Latin American markets. He holds a BA (2000) in English from Rice University and an MS (2003) in education and social policy from Northwestern University.
