A fire at Kuwait’s 615,000 b/d Al Zour refinery has forced state petroleum firm KPC to offer prompt crude cargoes as refinery throughputs have dropped sharply. The fire broke out earlier this week at two of the refinery’s atmospheric residue desulfurization units (ARDS), forcing a partial shutdown of operations. The extent of the unit closures remains unclear, as does the timeframe for repair work.
The impact of the Al Zour outage on Kuwait’s refining sector has been amplified as it coincided with scheduled maintenance at the 490,000 b/d Mina Abdullah refinery. Palash Jain, Middle East Oil Analyst at FGE Nexant, estimates that refinery runs will fall sharply to a two-year low of around 900,000-950,000 b/d in October as a result. (CONTINUED - 810 WORDS)
