Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) has completed a $4.7bn upgrade of its Mina al-Ahmadi refinery as part of the country’s $12bn Clean Fuels Project.
The contract for the upgrade, known as package 3, was awarded in 2014 to a consortium of Japan’s JGC Corporation, and South Korea’s GS Engineering & Construction and SK Engineering & Construction.
Earlier this month, KNPC said two additional production units had come on-stream. The two new coal and naphtha hydrotreating units will produce 37,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day (boe/d) and 8,400boe/d, respectively, according to Waleed al-Badr, chief executive officer of KNPC.
Three other units had also come online. These included the sulphur lock unit, which has a capacity of 50,000 barrels a day (b/d), and two sulphur extraction units.
Operations are still underway to complete the two other main packages of the clean fuels project. Both of these packages are focused on upgrading Kuwait’s Mina Abdullah refinery.
KNPC awarded technology contracts for the scheme to several international firms, including US engineering and technical services company Chevron Lummus, in February 2008. Orders for 37 reactors and vessels were placed, but the project stalled in 2009.
Kuwait’s Supreme Petroleum Council reviewed the project in 2010 and the plans were finally approved in June 2011.
