KNPC progresses on Mina Abdullah refinery’s Clean Fuels Project

Fluor Corp.’s joint venture team FDH JV—which includes partners Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co. and Hyundai Heavy Industries Co.—has completed final provisional turnover of installations for its work on the Mina Abdullah Package (MAB) 2 of Kuwait National Petroleum Co.’s (KNPC) Clean Fuels Project to upgrade its refineries to produce clean-burning fuels conforming to Euro 5 standards (OGJ Online, Apr. 17, 2014; Apr. 1, 2013).

Official handover of FDH’s work on MAB 2 installations at KNPC’s Mina Abdullah refinery in southern Kuwait took place on Aug. 18, Fluor said.

FDH’s scope of work on the $3.4-billion MAB 2 package—on which the JV provided design, construction, and commissioning services for a second phase of the Mina Abdullah refinery as part of the CFP—included delivery of a hydrogen plant (steam reformers), sulfur block (sour water stripper, amine regeneration unit, and sulfur recovery unit), as well as utilities, off sites, nonprocessing buildings, personnel training, and extensive modifications to existing Mina Abdullah refinery units, according to the service provider (OGJ Online, Oct. 13, 2015).

The JV also will provide unidentified ongoing support to the Mina Abdullah refinery’s commercial operations as KNPC continues commissioning components of the CFP megaproject, said Mark Fields, president of Fluor’s global energy and chemicals business.

Kuwait Petroleum Corp., through its subsidiary KNPC, operates the 466,000-b/d Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery about 28 miles south of Kuwait City on the Persian Gulf, and the 270,000-b/d Mina Abdullah refinery, both of which are undergoing modernization and expansion works to transform into an integrated 800,000-b/d merchant refining complex as part of KNPC’s CFP under Kuwait’s 2030 strategy, which aims to enhance growth in its refining manufacturing sectors as well as upgrade the refineries to produce clean-burning fuels conforming to Euro 5 standards (OGJ Online, Feb. 14, 2018).

Late in 2019, KNPC started production of 45,000-b/d of ultralow-sulfur diesel (ULSD) at the Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery as part of the CFP, and in March 2020, began operation of the CFP’s 30,000-b/d naphtha conversion unit No. 107 at the site, the operator said in a Mar. 9 release (OGJ Online, Jan. 6, 2020).

In September 2019, KNPC also commissioned the first diesel production unit under the CFP at its Mina Abdullah refinery, with startup of the new 73,000-b/d U-216 unit projected to bring the refinery’s ULSD production to 146,000 b/d following completion of the new U-116 unit already under construction as part of the complex’s CFP expansion work.

Most recently, KNPC confirmed startup of the water-cooling unit and main fuel gas line at the Mina Abdullah refinery, the commissioning of which were to pave the way in the upcoming months for completion of all CFP-related works at the refinery, according to a June 23, 2020, release from the operator.

Through subsidiary Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Co. (KIPIC), KPC also owns the grassroots 615,000-b/d Al-Zour integrated refining complex under construction as part of the CFP in southern Kuwait, the first unit of which was scheduled to be completed by May 2019, with pipelines for delivery of feedstock to the refinery to be ready by October 2019 (OGJ Online, Dec. 16, 2019). After a series of delays, however, KNPC has yet to confirm a definitive timeline for when it will fully commission the new Al-Zour complex.

KNPC previously shuttered its aging 200,000-b/d Shuaiba refinery on Apr. 1, 2017, as part of the CFP downstream initiative (OGJ Online, July 31, 2017).