Equate shuts down Shuaiba petrochemicals unit after fire

02 August 2012

Six week outage planned for mono-ethylene glycol production unit

Kuwait’s Equate Petrochemical Company has shutdown production from one of its mono-ethylene glycol units (MEG) at Shuaiba following a fire on 31 July.

The fire was extinguished, but the 550,000 tonne-a-year (t/y) unit will be shut for approximately six weeks, according to a 2 August company statement.

“Production operations of other units are unaffected and ongoing,” says the statement.

The fire was the result of a leak in the manufacturing unit on 31 July, an Equate official told state-run Kuna news agency. No injuries were reported.

Other units at the Shuaiba complex include another 600,000–t/y MEG plant, a 290,000-t/y ethylene oxide plant, a 850,000-t/y polyethylene plant and 850,000-t/y ethylene cracker.

Equate is a joint venture of state-owned Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC), the US’ Dow Chemical Company and two Kuwaiti firms; Boubyan Petrochemical Company and Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company.

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