Kuwait lets contract for Al-Zour integrated complex

Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC) subsidiary Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Co. (KIPIC) has let a contract to Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) to be the main automation contractor for 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, HPS will provide KIPIC with front-end engineering design and advanced process control technology for the complex, which will help KIPIC expedite production start-up and assist with reaching production targets faster and more efficiently, HPS said.

Known as the PRIZe project, the integrated refining and petrochemicals complex will help KIPIC meet Kuwait’s increasing demand for fuels and petrochemical products, said Hatem Al-Awadi, KIPIC’s acting chief executive officer.

“With Honeywell’s support, we are building a strategic project that will transform Kuwait's domestic oil and gas market and provide a significant accelerator for the country's long-term economic development by improving gasoline and benzene supply to the local and international markets,” Al-Awadi added.

This latest contract follows KIPIC’s previous award to Honeywell UOP LLC to 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 (OGJ Online, July 26, 2019; Nov. 27, 2017).

KIPIC most recently said the first unit of the Al-Zour integrated complex was 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].