Kuwait advances Clean Fuels Project work at refineries

Kuwait National Petroleum Co. (KNPC) has let a lump-sum engineering, procurement, and construction contract to a consortium of oil and gas service providers led by Petrofac for work related to its Clean Fuels Project (CFP) at its Mina Abdullah and Shuaiba refineries in southern Kuwait (OGJ Online, Apr. 1, 2013).

As part of the $3.7 billion contract, Petrofac and joint-venture partners Samsung Engineering Co. Ltd. and CB&I Nederland BV will provide 19 refining units at Mina Abdulla as well as revamp 5 existing units at KNPC’s Shuaiba refinery, the company said.

The contract also includes the accompanying interrefinery transfer lines, according to Petrofac.

Petrofac will take $1.7 billion of the $3.7 billion contract and expects to complete the project over a period of about 4 years, the company said.

KNPC previously let a CFP-related contract to AMEC to provide project engineering and management services for all three of its Kuwaiti refineries (OGJ Online, Dec. 6, 2013).

Kuwait’s CFP is designed to reconfigure the country's three refineries and, in conjunction with grassroots construction planned at Al Zour, nearly double total refining capacity to 1.4 million b/d.

Under the CFP, KNPC will integrate and upgrade the 270,000-b/d Mina Abdullah and 466,000-b/d Mina Al Ahmadi refineries and ultimately close the 200,000-b/d refinery at Shuaiba following the completion of the Al Zour plant. The newly integrated refineries will operate as a merchant complex with total capacity of about 800,000 b/d, the company has said (OGJ Online, Apr. 1, 2013).