$2b olefins plant gets green signal

Kuwait's Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC), the state's highest oil decision-making body, has approved building a $2 billion olefins plant, a senior official said yesterday. "The Council has given the approval to Petrochemical Industries Co (PIC) to build a second $2 billion olefins plant," the oil official said.

SPC also gave PIC, a subsidiary of state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC), primary approval to construct a $1.4 billion aromatics plant, he said. "PIC will execute the (country's) second olefins plant in partnership with a leading worldwide petrochemical company," he added without indentifying the company.

PIC's parent company Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) said in July the olefins plant will have an annual output capacity of 850,000 tonnes of ethylene, 450,000 tonnes of polyethylene and 650,000 tonnes of ethylene glycol.

The olefins plant is expected to start production in 2005. PIC and Union Carbide, a subsidiary of U.S. giant Dow Chemical, each have a 45 per cent stake in the first $2 billion petrochemical project, Equate, which has an annual production capacity. Local Boubyan Petrochemicals Co owns the rest of Equate shares.

SPC has approved an increase in the output quota of Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co (KUFPEC) to a minimum of 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2010, according to a report by the official Kuwait News Agency on Monday.

The report said SPC also recommended an output increase of 200,000 bpd for the same period.