KNPC lets contract for Al-Zour refinery

Kuwait National Petroleum Co. (KNPC) has let a dredging contract to Van Oord, Rotterdam, to reclaim land for KNPC’s planned 615,000-b/d Al-Zour refinery complex to be built in southern Kuwait (OGJ Online, July 1, 2011).

As part of the contract, Van Oord will dredge and reclaim about 65 million cu m of sand and execute extensive ground consolidation in a salt plain region along the Persian Gulf coast for the new refinery’s construction, according to a recent release from Van Oord.

Additionally, Van Oord will construct various channels, a basin for a future jetty, a barge dock, and roads, the company said, adding that its work under the contract will be the first phase of KNPC’s $23 billion investment program for the refinery.

Van Oord said it will begin work immediately and expects to complete the project in 30 months.

The contract value amounts to about $697 million, according to Van Oord.

The Al-Zour refinery, which is part of Kuwait’s Clean Fuels Project, is targeted for start-up in 2018 and will help to meet domestic demand and export of ultralow-sulfur products such as fuel oil, diesel and kerosene, as well as petrochemical feedstocks, KNPC has said (OGJ Online, Dec. 3, 2013; Apr. 1, 2013).

Once completed, Al-Zour will be the largest refinery in the Middle East.