| Project Detail |
PROJECT TYPE
Oil refinery
LOCATION
Al-Zour, Kuwait
OPERATOR
Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC)
REFINING CAPACITY
615,000 barrels a day of light Kuwait Crude or 535,000 barrels a day of mixed heavy crudes
ESTIMATED INVESTMENT
$27bn
CONSTRUCTION STARTED
2016
EXPECTED COMPLETION
Mid-2020
The Al-Zour refinery project (ZOR), is an upcoming refinery complex located approximately 90km south of Kuwait. It will be one of the biggest refineries in the world upon its commissioning in mid-2020.
It will supply 225,000 barrels a day of low-sulphur fuel oil (LSFO) to local power plants and produce jet fuel, kerosene and naphtha feedstock for petrochemical plants.
The Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC), a subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, will operate the refinery, petrochemicals and LNG import operations at the ZOR project.
ZOR and the Clean Fuels project (CPF) are the two biggest projects being implemented as part of KNPC’s 2030 strategy. The new refinery will account for 43% of the country’s refining capacity.
The Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) approved the project in February 2012 and approval was also granted by the Kuwait-Environment Public Authority (K-EPA). Site preparation works started in 2015. Construction on the project commenced in December 2017 and is scheduled to be completed in 2020.
The new refinery is designed to process 615,000 barrels per day (bpd) of light Kuwait export crude (KEC), or 535,000 barrels a day of mixed heavy crudes. The facility will produce Euro-V specification fuel, along with aromatics and propylene.
The overall investment for the project is estimated to reach $27bn.
Al-Zour Refinery project details
Atyrau Refinery Modernisation Project, Atyrau oblast, Kazakhstan
The project will enable the refinery to increase crude oil refining capacity to five million tonnes a year and achieve an output that conforms to Euro-5 standards.
There are five distinct phases in the ZOR project. The first phase involved the construction of the main facilities at the refinery, including three atmospheric residue desulphurisation (ARDS) units featuring two trains each, three crude distillation units (CDU), three diesel hydrotreating units (DHTU), two naphtha hydrotreating units (NHTU) and two kerosene hydrotreating units (KHTU).
The second and third phase of development involved the construction of the support process units, utilities and off-sites.
Facilities include two saturated gas-processing plants, a heavy oil cooling (HOC) unit, a hydrogen recovery (HR) unit, a hydrogen compression (HC) unit and four trains of hydrogen production units (HPU).
A sour water stripper (SWS) unit comprised of three trains, three amine regeneration (AR) plants, three sulphur recovery units (SRU) and tail gas treating units (TGTU) are also included. Additionally, four sulfur storage tanks, a hydrocarbon flare system, two acid gas flare and four sulfur pelletizing and conveying units have been installed.
The third phase included the installation of a steam-generating unit, air systems, water treatment systems, a cooling water unit and high voltage (HV) substations to receive power from the Al-Zour South Power Station (AZPS).
A large number of support infrastructure buildings for administration, security, operations and maintenance were also developed. Project activities also involved feedstock and product supply pipelines, as well as the construction of various channels, a basin for a future jetty, a barge dock and roads.
The fourth and the fifth phases of development involved the construction of a 6.5 million barrels capacity storage tank farm and marine and export facilities.
Technology licensors
“The Al-Zour Refinery project (ZOR) will primarily supply 225,000 barrels a day of low-sulphur fuel oil (LSFO) to local power plants. “
The technology licensor for the CDUs, AR plants, HR, HC and SWS units was Fluor, while Chevron Lummus Global licensed the technology for the ARDS units.
Technologies for the DHTUs, SRU and TGTU were licensed by Shell Global Solutions. The technology licensor for the NHTUs, HPUs and KHTUs is Haldor Topsoe.
Contractors involved
Amec was awarded the £330m ($528m) front-end engineering design (FEED) and project management consultancy (PMC) contract for the refinery. Honeywell provided its proprietary Experion PKS integrated control and safety system (ICSS) to serve as the main control system.
Van Oord was awarded a contract in March 2014 to carry out dredging works at the project site. It expects to dredge up to 65 million cubic metres of sand.
The FDH joint venture (JV) comprising Fluor, Daewoo Engineering and Construction, and Hyundai Heavy Industries secured two engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts in October 2015. The contract involved the development of key process units, utilities and infrastructure for the refinery project included in phases two and three.
A JV consisting of Essar Projects and Saipem received a $1.57bn EPC contract to set up tank farms under the fourth phase/package of Al-Zour Refinery development.
Técnicas Reunidas was responsible for engineering, supply, construction and commissioning of the processing units.
SNC-Lavalin was awarded a $180m contract to provide management support services and competency development consultancy services for the refinery project, in January 2018.
KAEFER was contracted to perform insulation works on piping and equipment at the refinery in in April 2019. |
