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 | 45

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

Endeavour Magazine | 47

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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