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Corporate Brochure July 2013
Citation preview
WRITTEN BY COLIN GIBSON
As part of a major $40 billion government investment plan in Kuwait’s oil and gas industry, the refinery at Mina Al-Ahmady is undergoing further expansion and modernisation
MEGA INVESTMENT
IN Kuwait
Established in 1960, KNPC is the refining and marketing arm of
Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC), currently operating three
refineries (Mina Al-Ahmady, Mina Abdullah and Shuaiba), an
LPG plant, a suite of filling stations and five marine export facilities.
When KPC was formed in 1980 to bring all state-owned oil
companies under one entity, KNPC became a subsidiary. Within the
first twelve months the oil sector in Kuwait was restructured, with
KNPC becoming responsible for the oil refining and gas liquefaction
industry in addition to the marketing of petroleum products in Kuwait
through its chain of filling stations.
Within a few years, plans began to be implemented to modernise
and expand the refining industry in Kuwait with multi-billion dollar
projects to revamp Mina Al-Ahmadi and Mina Abdullah Refineries. By
1984 the Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery Modernization Project (RMP) had
already been completed, and this was supplemented by the Further
Upgrading Project (FUP) in 1986. The two projects effectively created
a modern new refinery with optimal configuration and advanced
technology, and significantly increased the overall capacity of the
plant. Two years later the Mina Abdullah Refinery modernization
project (MAB) was completed, resulting in a state of the art plant with
a sizable capacity increase and improvements in product quality.
With its mission still being to maximise the value of Kuwaiti
hydrocarbons, KNPC is currently implementing a $40 billion
investment plan across a range of distinct projects including a new
refinery in the Zoor region of the country, a new depot at Matla, a
permanent LPG import terminal and a clean fuel project.
The new refinery and the new depot are long term projects
scheduled for completion towards the end of the decade, but there
are several smaller but no less important projects reaching completion
in the next couple of years. A number of these are at Mina Al-Ahmadi,
the largest of Kuwait’s three refineries.
Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery (MAA), located 45 km south of Kuwait
City on the Arabian Gulf, was built in 1949 to supply the local market
with gasoline, kerosene and diesel. After its two major modernisation
With its mission still being to maximise the value of Kuwaiti hydrocarbons, KNPC is currently implementing a $40 billion investment plan across a range of distinct projects including a new refinery in the Zoor region of the country, a new depot at Matla, a permanent LPG import terminal and a clean fuel project.
KUWAIT NATIONAL PETROLEUM COMPANY
You can’t overemphasise the importance of oil to the Kuwaiti economy. Kuwait’s proven crude oil reserves are estimated to be roughly ten percent of the world’s total, an extraordinary proportion for a relatively small country. All natural resources in the country are the property of the government, and oil revenue contributes 80 percent of government revenue, approximately half of the country’s GDP and something like 95 percent of its export revenue.
Endeavour Magazine | 121
and upgrade projects in the
1980s, it is now undergoing
serious expansion once again,
but this time in relation to liquid
petroleum gas production (LPG).
The MAA Refinery
Modernization Project (RMP)
was basically intended to
provide local and world markets
with low sulphur content
petroleum products, and to
reduce dependence on gas as
fuel, providing cheaper and
more stable fuel to the country’s
power generation plants.
The Further Upgrading
Project (FUP) was the result of
a more comprehensive review of
the future of petroleum product
markets, in order to maximize
profits and ensure a stable
market for the three refineries’
output. This project also sought
to increase the share of light
and medium products of the
distillation process to minimize
the share of fuel oil in the end
output, resulting in a higher
return from the crude oil refining
processes.
Now it’s the turn of LPG
to enjoy the benefit of serious
investment. Gas liquefaction at
Mina Al-Ahmadi went on stream
in 1978 with three identical
facilities (known as trains) for the
extraction of propane, butane
and Kuwait natural gasoline
(KNG). The plant also consists
of storage tanks divided into two
KUWAIT NATIONAL PETROLEUM COMPANY
World-class and state-of-the-art manufacturer of industrial, instrumentation and process control cables, low voltage power and system cables and other types of cables specifically designer for customers’ requirements
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Endeavour Magazine | 123
tank farms. The greater portion
of the LPG plant production
is now being exported to the
world market from the south
pier of Mina Al-Ahmadi which
is connected to the plant by a
pipeline network.
A contract was signed in
July 2010 with South Korean
contractor Daelim for a fourth
gas plant train, which is due
to be completed next March.
Costing an estimated $1134.9
million, this fourth GPT will be
integrated with the existing
three trains to process both gas
and condensates for the refinery,
with a capacity of 805 million
SCF (standard cubic feet) of
gas per day and 106 thousand
barrels per day of condensate.
The three existing trains
have a total capacity of 1680
MMSCF per day (560 each). A
fifth gas train project is currently
in the design stage. In view of this
expansion, tankage capacity is
highly critical for KNPC in order
to accommodate the extra gas
production.
A new North LPG Tank
Farm project therefore involves
building new LPG tanks to cater
for the fourth and fifth gas
trains and to allow simultaneous
loading of two LPG tankers at
the same time with the same
product. Another objective
of the project is to reduce
emissions from existing KNG
tanks on the South LPG Tank
Farm by adding geodesic domes
and replacing floating roof seals.
The project started in April 2010
and is expected to be completed
in March 2015 at a cost of $1367
million. Another Korean firm, GS
Engineering & Construction, is
the main contractor.
Another project at Mina
Al-Ahmadi, also scheduled for
completion by March 2015, is the
installation of a new unit for acid
gas removal, and a revamp of the
existing AGRP train. The new unit
will run at an average rate of 146
million SCF per day and 39 BPSD
of condensate and the existing
AGRP unit in the refinery will be
revamped to equal the capacity
of the new unit. The project will
also conform to KPC’s strategy
to reduce gas flaring to less than
one percent. The estimated cost
of the project is $899 million,
with Tecnimount SPA of Italy the
chosen contractor.
KUWAIT NATIONAL PETROLEUM COMPANY
00965 23989900
WWW.KNPC.COM
MEGA INVESTMENT
IN Kuwait
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