Kuwait launches Al Zour mega-refinery

Kuwait has started commercial operations at its 615,000-bpd Al Zour Refinery, project leader KIPIC announced on Sunday.

The Al Zour Refinery will rank among the largest refining sites in the world. Located 90 kilometres south of Kuwait City, the grassroots venture will have a processing capacity of 615,000 bopd of light KEC crude or 535,000 bopd of heavy mix oil, tackling 43% of the country’s refining backlog. Its storage capacity will top an impressive 6.5 million barrels.

The facility is designed to process the abundant heavy crude coming from Kuwait’s rich reservoirs, transforming it into low-sulphur fuel oil (LSFO 1%) in alignment with Euro 5 standards. To this end, some of its features include six of the world’s most advanced atmospheric residue desulphurisation units, as well as highly efficient semi-regenerative units with a 99.9% recovery rate.

Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC) is in charge of operating and managing the facility. Investment in the project topped USD 16 billion.

In comments to local media, KIPIC chief executive Waleed al Bader called the refinery “a vital outlet for the disposal of heavy Kuwaiti oil and provides refined products for export in global markets with standard specifications.”