Kuwait’s state refiner KNPC is nearing the start of commissioning at the country’s $12bn ‘Clean Fuels Project’ (CFP), which involves hiking the capacities of its adjacent Mina al-Ahmada and Mina Abdullah refineries from a combined 736,000 b/d to 800,000 b/d whilst installing and upgrading secondary units to enable the production of transport fuels to Euro-4 specifications.
The CFP project comprises three packages, one at Mina al-Ahmadi and two at Mina Abdullah. A consortium led by Japan’s JGC was awarded the Mina al-Ahmadi upgrade, while the Mina Abdullah projects were awarded to consortia led by UK’s Petrofac and US firm Fluor. Fluor says it has “successfully generated first steam” into KNPC’s clean fuels project, effectively marking the completion of the first utility unit in readiness for commissioning. The CFP was originally scheduled for late-2017 completion, but Petrofac said in its 2016 annual results that work on its Mina Abdullah contract would not be complete until the very end of 2018 (MEES, 31 March 2017). (CONTINUED - 164 WORDS)