Kuwait's state-owned refiner KNPC has brought three more units online at its 454,000 b/d Mina Abdullah refinery as part of the country's $16bn Clean Fuels Project (CFP), which is now nearing full operations after six years of work.
The long-delayed CFP was actually completed in May, but a handful of new units were offline until recently, according to sources at KNPC. The latest to be commissioned are a 50,000 b/d atmospheric residue desulphurisation unit, a vacuum rerun unit and a continuous catalytic reforming unit, all of which became operational in the last two weeks. The three units will allow KNPC to upgrade bottom-of-the-barrel residues into higher-quality products.
The atmospheric residue desulphurisation unit will produce 41,642 b/d of low-sulphur atmospheric residue (LSAR) along with 2,007 b/d of naphtha and 8,262 b/d of diesel. The vacuum rerun unit, which was commissioned on 27 August, will convert up to 50,000 b/d of LSAR into vacuum gasoil (VGO), trim gasoil (TGO) and vacuum residue. And the catalytic reforming unit, which was commissioned on 28 August, will use up to 18,000 b/d of hydrotreated naphtha to produce high-octane reformate, hydrogen, LPG and light naphtha. One more unspecified unit is due to be commissioned soon, sources told Argus.
The CFP has involved integrating Kuwait's Mina Abdullah and Mina al-Ahmadi refineries, raising their combined crude processing capacity to 800,000 b/d. The project aims to improve efficiency and open up new markets for higher-quality Kuwaiti oil products. Upgrade work at Mina al-Ahmadi was completed in April 2020. It included reducing the refinery's capacity to 346,000 b/d from 440,000 b/d previously.
