EXCLUSIVE: Design for Kuwait petrochemicals plant will not be completed this year

09 January 2018
Timeframe for front end engineering design has been extended by at least six months

The front end engineering design (feed) for Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company’s (KIPIC) planned petrochemical facility at Al-Zour won’t be completed this year, according to sources close to the project.

The feed contract for the project was signed in January 2017.

In its original form, it was a 17-month contract and was due to be completed by the end of June 2018.

Since then the timeframe for the feed contract has been extended by at least six months, according to industry sources.

Sources declined to comment on why the timeframe has been extended.

Prequalification documents for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors are expected to be released in the first quarter of 2018.

The project is estimated to be worth more than $6bn.

It is not yet known whether the scheme will be broken down into a number of smaller packages.

The UK’s Wood is carrying out the front end engineering design (feed) work for the project.

Honeywell UOP was announced as the technology provider for the project in November.

The petrochemical facility will be integrated with the $17bn Al Zour New Refinery Project.

When completed it will be the largest integrated refinery and petrochemicals plant in Kuwait.

It will produce aromatics and propylene and is a key part of Kuwait’s broader industrial strategy.

The petrochemical project includes a 50,000 barrels a day (b/d) residue fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC) complex with ethylene and propylene recovery.

A 24,000 b/d gasoline desulphorisation unit, two units to treat propane for propylene production.

It will be capable of converting butane to isobutane and producing clean-fuels blending components, including methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE).

The facility will include a 66,000 b/d continuous catalyst regeneration (CCR) platforming unit with a 74,000 b/d naphtha hydrotreater to make gasoline blend stock.

It also includes an aromatics complex that will have the capacity to make to make 1.4 million metric tonnes of paraxylene a year.

A propane dehydrogenation unit will produce 660,000 metric tonnes per year of polymer-grade propylene.

The main EPC contracts for the New Refinery Project were awarded in mid-2015 and are currently under execution.

On 16 December KIPIC denied that he refinery project was delayed.

It said that work was proceeding on schedule and the refinery would start operations in May 2019.

KIPIC said that the refinery is 45 per cent complete and the associated LNG facility is 21 per cent complete.

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