The scheme calls for the construction of a 770,000-tonne-a-year (t/y) paraxylene plant and a 330,000-t/y benzene plant. Kuwait National Petroleum Companywill supply 2.5 million t/y of naphtha feedstock for the paraxylene plant.

The US' UOP is the technology licence-holder for both units. Bechtelof the US is the project management consultant (PMC). The facility will be 80 per cent owned by PIC and 20 per cent by local investors (MEED 6:8:04).

The release of the aromatics tender came three weeks after The Kuwait Olefins Company (TKOC) - in which PIC has a majority stake - invited EPC contractors to bid by mid-February for the ethylene package on its $1,500 million olefins II complex (MEED 22:10:04).

www.meed.com/petrochemicals