KUWAIT - The Aromatics Venture.

In March 1995 the Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) approved the building of another complex at Shuaiba to produce aromatics using naphtha from Kuwait's oil refineries. Subsequently, negotiations began with Amoco (a US major now part of BP) and it was envisaged that the venture's corporate structure would be similar to that of Equate.

However, talks were suspended in mid-1996 after Amoco decided to take some time to look at the project internally. As chemicals prices dropped further during the second half of 1997, the project was shelved. (PIC had done a detailed feasibility study for the plant, then estimated to cost over $1.25 bn).

The project was revived in 2002 and the complex was now estimated to cost $1.4 bn. PIC alone is to own one plant to produce 700,000 t/y of paraxylene. PIC and a local investor are to own the 300,000 t/y styrene unit, with Dow to provide technical assistance. The project management contractor (PMC) for the whole complex is Bechtel of the US. PIC's legal adviser for the whole complex and for Equate II is Ashurst Morris Crisp. The complex should be completed in late 2006 and the plants will start up in early 2007.

(The original project was to have the capacity to produce 600,000yt/y of paraxylene, benzene, xylene and toluene - derivatives used in a range of manufacturing industries, including synthetic-fibre production).

Gulf PolyTex Co., a private Kuwaiti firm, is having an $80m integrated non-woven air-laid composite fabric plant built at Shuaiba and to be completed in the third quarter of 2003. Alaa SaemDahr, managing director of ConsulTek Gulf Co. which is the PMC for the venture, describes it as "the first plant of its kind outside the US, Europe and only recently in China"

The plant will have a nameplate capacity of 50,000 t/y, which will be expanded later on. It will feature stand-alone and integrated systems for web forming, binding, finishing, converting and packaging. The composite fabric will be exported and supplied to manufacturers of nappies, sanitary towels and wipes, among other products. PP, a primary feedstock for the plant, will be supplied by PIC. Other feedstocks will be imported. ConsulTek Gulf Co. has done the FEED work, in association with Ramboll of Denmark. The EPC contractor is a partnership of Dan-Webforming of Denmark and Santex of Switzerland.