KNPC outlines refinery plan

02 June 2006

At least 14 engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors attended on 29 May a meeting with Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) where it outlined the contracting strategy and tender schedule for its planned fourth gas and condensate train at the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery (MEED 16:9:05).

Companies that attended included ABB Lummus Global, Fluor Corporation, Foster Wheeler and Washington Group International, all of the US, Snamprogetti and Techint, both of Italy, Daelim Industrial Company, Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company, GS Engineering & Construction and SK Engineering & Construction, all of South Korea, UAE-based Petrofac International, Paris-based Technip, Japan's JGC Corporation and the UK's Costain Oil & Gas.

The estimated $800 million train will have a capacity of 805 million cubic feet a day of gas and 106,000 barrels a day of condensate. Both the gas and condensate will be produced from existing oil fields in north and southeast Kuwait. Upstream operator Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) currently flares 87 per cent of its associated gas production but aims to reduce this to 1 per cent. Delegates at the meeting were told that the original plan to also utilise gas from the contentious offshore Dorra field had been abandoned.

In a first for the local hydrocarbons sector, KNPC will let the contract on a front-end engineering and design (FEED) cum EPC basis. FEED will be carried out on a cost-reimbursable basis and then converted on a fixed-value open book estimate to EPC. According to KNPC, the tender will be issued by the end of June, with an award scheduled for October (MEED 10:2:06).

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