The Ministry of Oil said Monday, that the Al-Zour refinery is one of the largest projects in the oil sector and a fundamental pillar of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation’s strategy for the year 2040, given the major and pivotal role assigned to it in shaping the future of the oil industry in the country. The Director of Public Relations and Information at the Ministry of Oil, Sheikha Tamader Khaled Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, explained in a panel discussion organized by the ministry on Al-Zour Refinery that the refinery enhances Kuwait’s exports of high-quality oil derivatives that conform to international standards.

Guarantees
Sheikha Tamader Al-Sabah added that the Al-Zour refinery guarantees safe and stable supplies of clean fuel supplies to power plants in Kuwait, explaining that with the completion of the construction of the refinery, it will make it one of the largest refineries in the world, with a refining capacity of 615 thousand barrels per day. She stated that the refinery has high flexibility because it is designed to process different types of Kuwaiti crude oil, praising the exceptional role played by national expertise and Kuwaiti youth in the construction of Al-Zour refinery.

She stressed that the Al-Zour refinery represents a major driver for the growth of the oil sector and the Kuwaiti economy as a whole, as well as maximizing the state’s oil revenues, and a major energy supplier in Kuwait and global markets. For his part, Head of the Planning Team in the Comprehensive Planning Group at Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC), Abdullah Al-Kandari, said that the main objectives of the Al-Zour refinery project focus on achieving local energy self-sufficiency and reducing sulfur oxides emissions from power stations.

Al-Kandari added that the project also aims to enhance the ability to refine Kuwait’s heavy oil and produce high-quality petroleum products that meet the standards required in the global market, as well as create new job opportunities for national workers. He stated that the most important characteristic of the Al-Zour refinery is that it is the largest refinery in the world in terms of the capacity that is constructed in one stage quality with very low sulfur content.

Support
Regarding what has been achieved in the refinery project, he stated that some petroleum products were imported from the Kuwait National Petroleum Company to contribute to speeding up the initial operation, with full support from the Petroleum Corporation. It also carried out the trial operation of the first crude oil distillation unit, which started on May 11. Al-Kandari added that this unit has refined 2.5 million barrels of crude oil, thus securing an important and main stock of oil derivatives that contributed to the smooth operation of the rest of the units.

For her part, Rawa Bouftin, senior planning engineer at the Comprehensive Planning Group in Quebec, said that the products of Al-Zour refinery currently reach 18 countries around the world through 68 oil shipments, Bouftin stressed the importance of the human element as the key to excellence and one of the pillars of the oil industry and its renaissance in the State of Kuwait, and one of the most important pillars of the KPC strategy for the year 2040, which is based on building Kuwaiti human cadres, qualifying them with high skills, raising their efficiency and providing them with the opportunity for creativity and development. She pointed out that Al-Zour Refinery provided many job opportunities for national cadres, as the percentage of Kuwaitisation, according to the plans and policies adopted by the company, reached 95 percent. (KUNA)

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