MOSCOW (MRC) - Kuwait’s Mina Al-Ahmadi oil refinery has completed a biofuels expansion project with two additional production units coming on-stream, reported Reuters with reference to the state-run Kuwait News Agency, citing the Kuwait National Petroleum Corp (KNPC).
The two new coal and naphtha hydro treating units will produce 37,000 and 8,400 barrels per day (bpd) of oil equivalent respectively, Waleed al-Badr, KNPC chief executive officer said.
Operations are still underway to complete the same project in the Mina Abdullah refinery, he added.
The two refineries are undergoing upgrades and expansion as part of the Clean Fuels Project (CFP) with a focus on producing higher-value products such as diesel and kerosene for export.
Upon completion, Al-Ahmadi refinery, which consists of 31 units, will have a production capacity of 364,000 bpd, KUNA quoted Abdullah al-Ajmi, the deputy CEO for projects, as saying.
The cost of the biofuels project has reached 4.6 billion dinars (USD14.7 billion), according to Al-Ajmi.
After the units in Mina Abdullah come on-stream, the biofuel project will have a capacity of 800,000 bpd.
Kuwait currently has a refining capacity of around 730,000 bpd, mainly from Mina Al-Ahmadi and Mina Abdallah, its largest refineries.
As MRC informed previously, in February 2020, Qatargas signed an agreement with Shell to deliver 1 million mt/year of LNG to Kuwait for 15 years, starting this year. The LNG will come from Qatar Liquefied Gas Co. 4, a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum (70%) and Shell (30%), Qatargas said Sunday in a statement.
We also remind that in March 2019, Mammoet safely completed a critical lift at Shell’s Pennsylvania Chemicals Project in Potter Township, utilizing its MSG80 to hoist a 2,000 ton quench tower into position. The facility is the first major US project of its kind to be built outside of the Gulf Coast region in 20 years. Once operational, the facility will boast an ethane cracker and three polyethylene units, and is expected to employ up to 600 employees.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 383,760 tonnes in the first two month of 2020, up by 14% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased due to the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 192,760 tonnes in January-February 2020, down by 6% year on year. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main decrease in imports.
MRC