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Clean fuels project cracker, owned by the Kuwait Olefin Company
(Tkoc) and operated by Equate.
The $ 17 B CFP is designed to upgrade and Pic is looking to place the cracker at the new
integrate the Mina Abdulla and Mina Al-Ahmadi Al-Zour refinery, which would lower costs as it
(figure 3) refineries, while the Shuaiba complex would potentially utilize the refinery’s feedstock.
will be shut down. The Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery’s The project will contain a 1.4 MMtpy cracker
capacity will decrease from 466 Mbpd to 346 and produce ethylene derivatives like 1 MMtpy
Mbpd, and Mina Abdullah’s throughput will increase of polyethylene and 400 Mtpy - 600 Mtpy of
from 270 Mbpd to 454 Mbpd (table 1). The newly polypropylene.
integrated refineries will act as a single merchant Initial feasibility studies conducted in 2010 put
refining complex, boosting their domestic capacity the total cost of the project at nearly $ 5 B; with
from 736 Mbpd to 800 Mbpd [4]. changing market conditions, that price has
ballooned to $ 7 B - $ 9 B. The project remains in
New refinery project the early planning stages, and will likely push back
the initial completion date of 2018. The feedstock
Knpc’s clean fuels initiative also includes the source is still being analyzed, but it will include
construction of what will be the ME’s largest ethane, offgases, propane and combinations of
refinery - Al Zour (615 Mbpd). The $ 14.5 B project LPG, naphtha and condensate.
will produce high-quality petroleum products for
export, supply power generation plants in Kuwait Other ME Nations
with environmentally friendly fuel, and provide
alternatives to gas imports and heavy fuel use. Iraq
Startup of the Al-Zour refinery is scheduled for early
2018. To alleviate shortfalls in refined fuels and to meet
increasing domestic demand, Iraq has laid plans
The CFP and NRP projects will produce to double its refining capacity to 1.5 MMbpd by
high-quality, low-S fuels for export to 2017. The plan includes $ 20 B in investments
various markets around the globe, and to construct several new refineries with a total
they are part of Kuwait’s goal to increase capacity of 740 Mbpd. Due to fighting with Isis and
its total domestic refining capacity to 1.4 continued economic and political instability, the
majority of these projects, except for the Karbala
MMbpd of refined fuels by 2020 refinery that is presently under construction, have
been delayed indefinitely. The Kirkuk refinery plan
Knpc received EPC proposals for all packages was revived in late 2014 after continuous delays,
(1, 2, 3 and 4), but the bids for package 4, which and the Iraq oil ministry announced it will rebid the
includes the construction of oil tanks and pipelines, Nassiriya refinery contract in 2015. Shell’s $ 11 B
have been higher than expected. This package petrochemical complex in the southern oil hub of
and package 5, which includes an export terminal Basra is being called Nibras, Arabic for “beacon
and other marine facilities, are estimated to cost of light” and it envisions an ethane cracking unit
approximately $ 1.1 B. Knpc has announced that that would produce ethylene to make plastics. The
it may re-tender packages 4 and 5; if it does, this project is expected to be completed in 2020 or
process will delay the project by up to six months. 2021.
As of March, the project is still ongoing [4]. Shell is developing the huge Majnoon oil field near
The CFP and NRP projects will produce high- Basra that is pumping approximately 200 Mbpd.
quality, low-S fuels for export to various markets Shell also signed a $ 17.2 B deal last year to collect
around the globe, and they are part of Kuwait’s natural gas from Iraq’s southern oil field production.
goal to increase its total domestic refining capacity The gas has traditionally been flared, and Iraq has
to 1.4 MMbpd of refined fuels by 2020 [2]. long had ambitions to collect and use the gas to
meet domestic energy demand.
Expanding olefins cracking Qatar
capability
While several large projects have been canceled
Petrochemical Industries Corp. (Pic), a subsidiary recently, Qatar is still investing in its refining and
of Kuwait Petroleum Co., is developing the petrochemical sectors. Qatar Petroleum has
country’s third olefins cracker, Olefins 3. The first entered into a JV agreement with Total, Idemitsu,
olefins cracker began operations in the Al-Shuaiba Cosmo, Marubeni and Mitsui, to build Laffan
Industrial Area in 1997 as part of a petrochemical Refinery 2 (LR2), a $ 1.5 B condensate refinery
complex owned and operated by PIC’s joint in Ras Laffan Industrial City (figure 4). Qatar
venture, Equate. In 2009, it was joined by a second Petroleum will hold an 84% interest in the project,
while Total will hold 10%, Idemitsu and Cosmo will
30 Impiantistica Italiana - Luglio-Agosto 2015
