Kuwait's PIC expected to restart Shuaiba PP unit mid-July

05 July 2000 09:40  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (CNI)--Petrochemical Industries Co (PIC) of Kuwait is expected to restart its polypropylene (PP) plant at Shuaiba around mid-July, according to local sources on Wednesday.

The 120 000 tonne/year plant relies on propylene supplies from Kuwait National Petroleum Co's (KNPC) nearby Mina-al-Ahmadi refinery, which was hit by an explosion on 25 June. When the blast occurred the PP plant was closed for maintenance work and was scheduled to come back up at the beginning of July.

Equate's ethylene, polyethylene (PE) and ethylene glycol (EG) units at Shuaiba are being prepared for startup following the Mina-al-Ahmadi refinery explosion, and the company expects have all production fully onstream within the next two days.

A spokesman for Equate, which is partly owned by PIC, confirmed that ethane supplies from the refinery's LPG (liquefied petroleum gases) unit have now resumed. "The ethane feed has been restored and we expect to have all units fully operational within the next 48 hours," he told CNI today.

Equate is a joint venture between Union Carbide Corp, PIC and Boubyan Petrochemical Co. It has the capacity to produce 800 000 tonne/year of ethylene, 600 000 tonne/year of PE and 400 000 tonne/year of ethylene glycol (EG).

By: Anna Jagger
+1 713 525 2653

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