Fluor Corporation has announced the completion of a project doubling the capacity of the petrochemicals complex at Shaiba, Kuwait. The Olefins II project, which spanned five years, was completed in June.
The US-based engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance (EPCM) company began work on the project in July 2004 providing overall management and front-end engineering and design (FEED) work for utilities and infrastructure of the Olefins II project.
In addition to overall management consultancy and FEED, Fluor handled FEED and engineering, procurement, and construction management for seawater cooling towers, polyethylene expansion, expansion of existing utilities and infrastructure, and new utilities and infrastructure shared with aromatics.
Fluor also oversaw the engineering and construction of an 850,000 tonnes per year (TPY) ethane cracker, a 600,000 TPY ethylene glycol unit, a 450,000 TPY ethyl benzene/styrene monomer unit, and a debottleneck expansion of an additional 225,000 TPY of polyethylene capacity at the existing complex.
In 1998, Fluor completed the original complex at Shaiba. In 2005, after completion of FEED work for Olefins II, Fluor was once again chosen to expand the plant and build a new facility alongside the existing one while integrating the two facilities into a single complex, doubling the capacity of the existing complex.
The complex is owned by a joint venture of Dow Chemical, Kuwaits Petrochemical Industries, Bubyan Petrochemical, and Qurain Petrochemical Industries.
