Kuwait’s Mega Refinery: Rekindling Ambitions After a Pause

The operator of the massive Al-Zour Refinery, Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC), is attempting to progressively resume operations at the plant following the unexpected shutdown on Sunday, the company said on Wednesday, as reported by news sources.

One of the biggest refineries in the Middle East, Al-Zour, suffered a brief shutdown on Sunday due to a “sudden interruption” in the supply of petrol and fuel, KIPIC reported this past weekend.

According to a statement released by KIPIC on Sunday and obtained by Bloomberg, the refinery was “exposed to a sudden interruption of fuel gas supplies due to a malfunction in one of Kuwait Oil Co.’s main valves.”

Restarting the refinery with a 615,000 barrels per day (bpd) capacity has already started, but KIPIC predicted that it could take up to 10 days for regular operations to resume.

The refinery started ramping up operations this year and was anticipated to reach full capacity in October. KIPIC claims that the refinery is the largest grassroots refinery in the world, with a capacity of 615,000 bpd. Due to its ability to process different types of Kuwaiti crude, including Kuwait Heavy Crude (KHC) oil, which will be produced in accordance with the upstream strategy of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), the state oil company of one of the biggest crude oil producers in the Middle East, the refinery has a high degree of flexibility.

Technical teams at the Al-Zour Refinery have begun work on a phased restart of the production units following this weekend’s glitch. Operator KIPIC estimated that it would take roughly ten days for the mega refinery to revert to its previous production level.

In order to avoid more interruptions in the supply of energy and water to power plants as well as interruptions in export operations, KIPIC is also taking preventative action.

Kuwait was expected to divert more crude to its new large processing facility, resulting in an additional tightening of the global supply of sour crude, as a result of the 615,000-bpd refinery ramp-up earlier this year.

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