FILE PHOTO: An aerial view shows Kuwait City and the National Assembly Building (Kuwait Parliament) -REUTERS/Stephanie McGehee
KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait has started commercial operations of the first phase of its Al-Zour mega-refinery, after the initial production and sale of fuel oil began last month to supply local power stations.
Commercial operations at Al-Zour are a “long-term investment aimed at providing international and local markets with high-quality products,” Khaled Al-Awadhi, the refinery’s deputy chief executive, was cited as saying by state-run Kuna news agency on Sunday.
Comprising three mini refineries, Al-Zour is the biggest of several oil-processing facilities being added across the Middle East.
The Dangote refinery in Nigeria, slightly bigger at 650,000 barrels a day, is due to start up in 2023.
The second and third phases of the refinery will follow, until full capacity is reached, Waleed Al-Bader, acting chief executive officer of Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Co, said.
The entire refinery, with a combined crude processing capacity of 615,000 barrels a day, could be up and running by January, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg last month. — Bloomberg
