Completion of Kuwaiti state refiner KNPC’s clean fuels project (CFP) upgrade of its Mina al-Ahmadi and Mina Abdullah refineries has slipped into 2020. Japan’s JGC, contractor for the CFP work at Mina al-Ahmadi, says in its 2019 annual report released on 4 October that it is “about a year up to completion.” JGC flagged up concerns about the project in an 8 August earnings call, when company president and COO Tadashi Ishizuka said the project “poses some concern” as a result of heavy rain last November, which flooded the refinery and caused damage to an area under the public road (MEES, 23 August).
The CFP involves expanding the combined capacity of Kuwait’s two operating refineries to 801,000 b/d from 736,000 b/d, while installing major crude upgrading capacity to virtually eliminate fuel oil production while increasing output of lighter transport fuels. When KNPC sanctioned the CFP project in March 2015 a late-2017 start-up was anticipated (MEES, 13 March 2015). KNPC announced early last month the start of commissioning the first unit at Mina Abdullah, a 73,000 b/d diesel plant (MEES, 6 September). (CONTINUED - 175 WORDS)