Kuwait announces 2015 and 2017 start-up for projects in China and Indonesia

Hussain Esmail, president of state-owned Kuwait Petroleum International, said that the country’s joint venture refining and petrochemicals projects in China and Indonesia are scheduled for start-up in 2015 and 2017, respectively. Esmail said the total capital cost of the Chinese project, which is a joint venture between KPI’s parent Kuwait Petroleum Corp. and Sinopec, will reach approximately US$9.5 billion. The refinery in China is expected to have a crude oil-processing capacity of 300,000 barrels per day (b/d). Fuel output will be mainly gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuels. The integrated petrochemicals complex will have an output capacity of 1 million metric tons/year (mt/y) of ethylene. In Indonesia, Esmail said that Kuwait Petroleum and Pertamina are still in the process of selecting an international partner for the proposed 200,000-300,000 b/d refining and petrochemical complex in the country. Esmail noted that Kuwait Petroleum was only the second foreign company, after Saudi Aramco, to win an approval from Beijing to set up a joint venture refinery in China. (April 10, 2012)