Kuwait National Petroleum Corporation (KNPC) exported its first shipment of aviation jet fuel from the country’s newly commissioned Al-Zour mega-refinery.
The first cargo is currently being shipped aboard the Pacific Sarah tanker, KNPC said in a statement.
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The company and its subsidiaries are “continuously working to meet the rising demand of the global market for clean fuels in line with environmental regulations,” KNPC said.
Kuwait said earlier this month it had started commercial operations of the first phase of the Al-Zour refinery, after the production and sale of fuel oil in October to supply local power stations.
The second and third phases of the refinery will follow, until a full capacity of 615,000 barrels is reached early next year. Once the facility on Kuwait’s coast is working fully, it will boost the OPEC member’s refining capacity to about 1.5 million barrels a day.
Comprising three mini refineries, Al-Zour is the biggest of several oil-processing facilities being added across the Middle East.
The Dangote refinery in Nigeria, slightly bigger at 650,000 barrels a day, is due to start up in 2023.
Earlier this month Kuwait reaffirmed its commitment to achieving carbon neutrality in the oil and gas sector by 2050.
Originally planned more than a decade ago but repeatedly delayed, Al-Zour will be the largest integrated refinery and petrochemical plant in Kuwait.
In July, KNPC awarded 3.48 billion dinars ($11.5 billion) worth of contracts to build the al-Zour oil refinery, which would be one of the largest in the Middle East, according to Kuwaiti state news agency KUNA.
