Kuwait’s Clean Fuels Project generates first steam

Nov. 1, 2018
Fluor Corp.’s joint venture team FDH JV has generated first steam into Kuwait National Petroleum Co.’s Clean Fuels Project to upgrade its refineries to produce clean-burning fuels conforming to Euro 5 standards. Fluor said the milestone marks the completion and turnover of the first utility units by the Fluor-led joint venture and that KNPC is advancing these units into operation with the JV’s ongoing support.

Fluor Corp.’s joint venture team FDH JV has generated first steam into Kuwait National Petroleum Co.’s (KNPC) Clean Fuels Project to upgrade its refineries to produce clean-burning fuels conforming to Euro 5 standards (OGJ Online, Oct. 27, 2016; Apr. 1, 2013).

Fluor said the milestone marks the completion and turnover of the first utility units by the Fluor-led joint venture and that KNPC is advancing these units into operation with the JV’s ongoing support.

Generation of first steam also well positions the JV to complete delivery of remaining units for the CFP, Fluor added.

Kuwait Petroleum Corp., through its subsidiary KNPC, operates the 466,000-b/d Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery about 28 miles south of Kuwait City on the Persian Gulf, and the 270,000-b/d Mina Abdullah refinery, both of which are undergoing modernization and expansion works to transform into an integrated 800,000-b/d merchant refining complex as part of KNPC’s CFP under Kuwait’s 2030 strategy, which aims to enhance growth in its refining manufacturing sectors as well as upgrade the refineries to produce clean-burning fuels conforming to Euro 5 standards (OGJ Online, Feb. 14, 2018; Nov. 28, 2017).

Through recently formed subsidiary Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Co. (KIPIC), KPC also owns the grassroots 615,000-b/d Al-Zour integrated refining complex under construction as part of the CFP in southern Kuwait, the first unit of which is scheduled to be completed by May 2019, with pipelines for delivery of feedstock to the refinery to be ready by October 2019 (OGJ Online, Jan. 22, 2018).

KNPC also shuttered its aging 200,000-b/d Shuaiba refinery on Apr. 1, 2017, as part of the CFP downstream initiative (OGJ Online, July 31, 2017).

The Fluor-led FDH JV—which includes Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co., and Hyundai Heavy Industries Co.—is responsible for engineering, procurement, and construction as well as associated precommissioning and testing support for the Mina Abdullah Package 2 CFP (OGJ Online, Apr. 17, 2014).

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].