State-owned downstream operator Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) is considering three options for the planned petrochemicals facility at its Al-Zour New Refinery Project (NRP), according to industry sources.

The first option is the integration of an olefins plant, the second is the integration of an aromatics facility and the third is the construction of both.

“The most probable scenario is that KNPC will build both an olefins facility and an aromatics plant, and integrate them with the NRP,” says one source.

Kuwait revived plans for a multibillion-dollar petrochemicals project located in the Al-Zour area in September 2014, and announced plans to set up a new company to manage the scheme in February this year.

The project is estimated to be worth between $5bn and $10bn.

It is thought that integrating the chemicals facility with the NRP will help improve profit margins for both the refinery and the petrochemicals complex.

The NRP will see a 615,000 barrel-a-day (b/d) facility constructed in the Al-Zour area near Kuwait’s border with Saudi Arabia.

Contracts for the Al-Zour scheme’s five packages, worth a total of $13bn, were signed in October 2015.

Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, the parent company of KNPC, was contacted, but did not comment.