McDermott International has bagged a technology contract from Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC) for a new petrochemical unit at the latter’s Petrochemical Refinery Integration Al Zour project (PRIZe project) in Kuwait.
Image: McDermott to deploy Lummus Technology for KIPIC’s PRIZe project. Photo: courtesy of Free-Photos/Pixabay.
Under the contract, McDermott will be responsible for the basic engineering, technology license and catalyst for an integrated low pressure recovery (LPR) and olefins conversion technology (OCT) unit as part of the PRIZe project.
Upon its completion, the new petrochemical unit is expected to have a production capacity of 330,000 metric tons per annum of polymer grade propylene from refinery by-product streams.
McDermott’s Lummus Technology will be deployed for the new unit at the Al Zour complex. The Lummus Technology licenses petrochemicals, refining, gasification and gas processing technologies, and also supplies catalysts and related engineering.
McDermott Lummus Technology business senior vice president Leon de Bruyn said: “This award marks the 50th OCT unit that Lummus Technology has licensed, and we are honored to celebrate this milestone with KIPIC.
“This is a significant achievement that highlights the trust that our customers have in our industry-leading technologies.”
The PRIZe project will see the addition of a gasoline block, OCT unit, polypropylene units, an aromatics block, associated utility and offsite facilities to the existing Al Zour refinery site. The new units will be integrated closely with the ZOR Refinery and LNGI projects, which are planned to be operated as an integrated facility upon completion.
In 2017, Rendel was appointed by Amec Foster Wheeler to deliver maritime consultancy services for the PRIZe project. Amec Foster Wheeler is the project management consultant (PMC) and is responsible for the overall FEED for the PRIZe project.
Through the project, KIPIC, which is a subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), is aiming to upgrade fuel products from the Al Zour refinery to high value bulk petrochemicals products. The upcoming integrated petrochemical facility will have an annual capacity of 2,761 KTPA of aromatics and polypropylene and 1700 KTPA of gasoline.
The PRIZe project is expected to boost polypropylene and aromatics production in Kuwait by 1000% and 200%, respectively, in addition to increasing the value of the country’s hydrocarbon products.