KNPC NRP and PIC Al-Zour projects to be integrated
The national oil company (NOC) Kuwait National Petroleum Corporation (KNPC) and its sister state-owned company Petrochemical Industries Corporation (PIC) are working on the integration of their respective giant projects, the New Refinery Project (NRP) on one side and the Al-Zour Olefins and Aromatics Plants projects on the other side.
Reporting to the holding company Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), KNPC has the mandate to design and operate the refineries for the group.
In parallel PIC is acting as the spearhead of the petrochemical activities in the same group.
For a decade KNPC is mulling over $33 billion capital expenditure in refineries projects.
These refining projects cover the revamping and upgrading of existing refineries, the expansion of refineries and the construction of greenfield refinery including:
- Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery Fifth Train
- Mina Al-Abdula Clean Fuel Project (CFP)
- Al-Zour New Refinery Project (NRP)
While KNPC Clean Fuel Project is already in execution, the other Kuwait refinery projects are split in multiple packages that should move into the execution phase soon.
KBC to study NRP and PIC Al-Zour projects integration
Since the 2000s years Kuwait is developing, through PIC, its petrochemical sector in phases called Horizons.
After the completion of Horizon phases 1 and 2 in 2010, PIC is working on Horizon 3 to build the third ethylene cracker known as Olefins-III project and an aromatics plant.
Designed as a world-scale plant, the PIC Olefins III project involves:
- Ethylene Glycol (EG) unit
- High density polyethylene (HDPE)
- Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE)
For the aromatics plant, PIC is planning to build:
- Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) unit
- Purifed terephthalic acid (PTA) unit.
Even if these KNPC NRP project and PIC Petrochemical complex should be design executed and operated separately, there are significant benefits for each company and KPC overall to develop them through an integrated program instead of handling them independent as usual.
Currently the KNPC NRP project is ranging around $14 billion capital expenditure while PIC is budgeting $10 billion investment in the Al-Zour petrochemical project.
Therefore developing a $24 billion integrated complex rises many questions and challenges, but it can also return major savings in the infrastructures, in the interconnections between the facilities and the overall project management.
It should also reduce offsites and utilities costs once running into operations.
Finally, it should also improve the flexibility of the facilities to swing products across a wider range of hydrocarbon products.
In this perspective KNPC selected KBC Advanced Technologies to propose the optimized scheme for this integration between KNPC New Refinery Project and PIC Al-Zour in order to start the first production by 2020.
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