Kuwait state firm Kipic announced that 2 December was “a historic day” because of the delivery of a first shipment of crude by upstream firm KOC into storage tanks at the new Al-Zour refinery in preparation for commissioning.
Once operational, Al-Zour will bring Kuwait’s total refining capacity to 1.4mn b/d which is equivalent to nearly half of Kuwait’s approximately 3mn b/d oil production capacity. Prior to the 2017 shutdown of the 200,000 b/d Shuaiba refinery (MEES, 31 March 2017) and the onset of the nearly-completed Clean Fuels Project (CFP) overhaul of its Mina al-Ahmadi and Mina Abdullah refineries, Kuwait used to routinely maintain run-rates of more than 90% of its then-936,000 b/d capacity. If it opts to do so again then exports of crude oil will fall sharply. (CONTINUED - 773 WORDS)
