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4

WIDENINGHORIZONS

KUWAIT NATIONAL PETROLEUM COMPANY -K.S.C.

widening iiorizons

1

Ahmed Abdul Mohsin Al-Mutair.

Chairman and Managing Director of

KNPC.

INTRODUQDN

The Kuwait National Petroleum Company was incorporated in 1 960,

and in 1961 took over the sole rights of distribution and sale of products

in the State.

In 1968, the Company's refinery at Shuaiba came on stream and its

products have since then been marketed internationally.

The Company is capitalised with KD. 15,000,000 in the form of two

million shares of KD. 7.5 each, all issued and fully paid. The Kuwait

Government owns 60 per cent of the issued shares, the balance of 800,000

shares being owned by private Kuwaiti citizens and publicly traded.

Today, KNPC is Kuwait's largest business controlled by citizens of the

State; and the Company's refinery is one of the first major refineries to

be erected in the Middle East without the backing of an international

oil company.

From the beginning, KNPC elected to design a unique and sophisticated

refinery with a flexibility that would permit it to operate efficiently on

either light or heavy crude oils. Furthermore, KNPC recognized that the

availability of the gas associated with Kuwait crude production favoured

the use of Hydrogen in the downstream processing configuration.

Since catalytic hydroprocessing is involved in every unit downstream

of the two-stage crude unit, Shuaiba became known as the world's first

all-hydrogen refinery. The synthesis plant employed to manufacture

and supply the huge volumes of hydrogen required is the largest ever

built. When operated at rated capacity, and with heavy, high-sulphur

crude, the sulphur-recovery plant has an output potential of 570 long

tons per day—greater than that of any other existing refinery.

In operation, Shuaiba Refinery receives gas from the Kuwait crude fields

for the manufacture of hydrogen used in the hydro-cracking of residual

and heavy gas oils, and in four high pressure hydro-desulphurisation

units. End products include high-quality petrochemical naphtha, gaso-

line, kerosene, automotive and marine diesel oils, fuel oil and sulphur.

**

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^i^^M; '•.'l-. fj^'^ttr- »"^vf->/»:;

BadeI Rifai. Manager of Local

Marketing, Kuwait office.

local marketing

Since 1961, when KNPC acquired the

distribution facilities, previously oper-

ated by the Kuwait Oil Company, the

Local Marketing Department has under-

taken the supply of petroleum products

throughout the State of Kuwait. This has

necessitated the organisation of adequate

storage and distribution facilities as well

as the construction of filling-stations of

which there are now 33 in operation.

The main storage tanks are located at

North Shuwaikh and Ahmadi, both

receiving fuels by pipelines from KOCRefinery, KNPC's Refinery at Shuaiba

provides the local market with all its

requirements of super premium motor

spirit, as well as a proportion of premium

motor spirit, gas oil, aviation kerosene,

and bunker fuel oil requirements— the

demand for all these products steadily

increasing with the growth of local sales

Distribution is effected by road tanker

vehicles or, in some cases, by pipeline,

while bunkering services are available at

Shuwaikh Port terminal which was

recently taken over by KNPC

• Mansouria filling station, one of the latest additions

to KNPC's network in Kuwait State.

"W-

.j£&^'.

A tanker baits products at Shuaiba Oil Pier.

international

mariceting

Wa/id Hadid, head of /nternal/onal

Marketing.

Meeting in KNPC's London office are

(from left): Kamel Harmi. Marine

Sales Representative: Khalif Al-

Kfialif. Deputy Managing Director.

Refining: Afimed Abdul Molisin Al

Mulair, Chairman and Managing

Director: Walid Hadid, head of Inter

national Marketing, and Nasr Al-

Salim. Manager of KNPC's New York

office.

Theinternational marl<eting operations

of the Company are conducted princi-

pally from its office in London—

a

location selected because of this city's

importance as a center of commercial

activity and international communica-

tions—but also from branch offices in

Tokyo, New York, Singapore and Ku-

wait. The primary objective of these

operations Is to ensure an optimum and

profitable sale of the products of Shuaiba

Refinery. To achieve this, the Company's

London Office houses departments

which deal with the negotiation and

administration of sales, both of cargoes

and bunkers; supply and planning,

covering responsibilities ranging from

scheduling of deliveries to long-term

strategic markets; planning and product

development ; finance and administration,

including personnel and legal matters,

and a marine section to handle spot

and term charter of vessels for ttie

company's marine requirements as well

as control of fleet movements. This

marine section also provides active assist-

ance to the Company's long term plans

for controlled tonnage.

International Marketing Office is in

constant contact with Head Office de-

partments and Shuaiba Refinery in order

to enable the Company's policies and

plans to be properly integrated and

coordinated.

In addition, world market trends in

energy, particularly in so far as petroleum

and petroleum products are concerned,

are continuously monitored so that short-

term marketing decisions and long-term

marketing plans are based on up-to-date

and more accurate market intelligence.

umn Bas Processing, Naphtha

fractionating, and Amine Units at

Shuaiba Refinery.

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A general view of the Refinery Control Room.

Panels at which the Hydrogen Manufac-

turing and Compression and the Crude

and Vacuum Units are controlled.

Crude oil is charged to atmospheric

and vacuum distillation units where

it is fractionated into naphtha, kero-

sene, light diesel oil, heavy diesel oil,

heavy gas oil and vacuum tower bot-

toms. Of these, the naphtha, kerosene,

light diesel and heavy diesel streams are

treated in high pressure Unifiners

(catalytic hydro-desulphurisation units

licensed by the Union Oil Company)

to produce high quality petrochemical

naphthas, kerosene with superior burning

characteristics, and automotive and ma-

rine diesels.

The heavy gas oil, together with a selected

cut of diesel oil of suitable boiling range,

is processed in an Isomax unit—a fixed

bed hydro-cracker. The charge, with

re-cycled unconverted material, is fed to

a catalyst bed in a hydrogen atmosphere

at high pressure and temperature. This

converts the low-value material into a

high quality, low-pour-point diesel

blending stock. The Isomax reactor at

Shuaiba weighs 675 tons, and is believed

to be the heaviest refinery vessel ever

raised in one piece.

mr---'"-"^'"'"""^^- '"'

Plant at the Befinery

—— I

The H-Oil unit used at Shuaiba for the

first time in a large commercial applica-

tion, charges approximately 50,000 b/d

of heavy vacuum tower bottoms— to-

gether with some re-cycled gas oils—to

produce distillate and fuel oil products.

In addition to the hydrocracking of

residue to lighter products, the products

themselves are appreciably reduced in

sulphur content.

Associated gas from Kuwait's crude

production operations is used as feed-

stock for the production of up to 148

Balk sulphur ready for trucking or export.

million cubic ft/day of hydrogen in the

Shuaiba Hydrogen Plant. The resultant

hydrogen stream—of 95 per cent purity—is used in processing all liquid streams

leaving the crude and vacuum unit.

The following low-sulphur, high quality

base stocks'are produced in the Refinery

:

naphtha, reformate (high-octane gasoline

component), fuel blending stock, light

kerosene, aviation turbine kerosene,

heavy kerosene, low-pour-point diesel

oil, light diesel oil, local diesel and marine

diesel oils, and heavy fuel oil. The base

The 6as Oil Hydrocracker (Isomax) Unit.

The H-Oil Unit.

stocks are blended in various proportions

to make finished products of petrochemi-

cal naphtha, gasoline, kerosene, auto-

motive diesel, marine diesel oil and heavy

fuel oil.

The sulphur is removed from the various

oil fractions as hydrogen sulphide. This is

absorbed from the gas stream in an Amine

treating unit, and is fed to the Sulphur

Recovery Plant The Sulphur product is

either pumped as liquid to the Kuwait

Chemical Fertilizer Company's plant, or

flaked for export.

OUTLINE OF SHUAIBA REFINERY 1

poramic I

SIMPLIFIED FLOW CHARTOF THE K.N.P.C. REFINERY

BURGANGAS

CRUDE OIL

BURGAN V

poramic view of the KHPC refinery

^ c

BURGANGAS

SIMPLIFIED FLOW CHARTOF THE K.N. PC. REFINERY

CATALYTIC

fI REFORMER

GASPROCESSINGUNIT

HYDROGENMANUFACTURING

ANDCOMPRESSION

AMINEUNIT

SULFURRECOVERYUNIT

AUTODIESEL

'^ POUR

-* SULFUR

CATALYTICREFORMER &as~5line

I

AMINEUNIT

SULFURRECOVERYUNIT

I

PETRO-

^ CHEMICALNAPHTHA

- KEROSENE

AUTODIESEL

- POUR

• SU.LFM.R,,

principal units

in tiie refinery

/rude. Intermediate a

Produce Storage

11.8MM Bbis (Including

tanks under constructi?

.^^

automaOon at shuaiba

Thehigh efficiency level obtainable at

the KNPC refinery at Shuaiba is

possible through an integrated system

of automation.

This system features

:

— All-electronic operation

— A single semigraphic control panel

over 200 feet long in one centralised

control room.

— A design that permits incorporation of

computers for data handling and

operations analysis for administration

of the refinery.

— Modular design for quick unit/com-

ponent replacement.

COMPUTER SYSTEM

A sophisticated computer system facili-

tates the management, operation and

maintenance of the KNPC refinery. The

computing system consists of two com-

puters, an IBM 1800 and an NCR Century

200. The IBM 1800 is a process machine

connected to about 1500 analog instru-

ments and some 50 turbine meters in the

refinery. This data acquisition system

provides the real time information neces-

sary for process supervision, operations

support, and conventional data pro-

cessing. Many process engineering calcu-

lations and scientific applications are

programmed for solution on the IBM

1800 computer.

The NCR Century 200 is a sophisticated

third generation computer and is used for

all commercial data processing at KNPC.

Current applications include payroll, per-

sonnel, inventory control, local marketing

credit sales and stock movement, inte-

grated refinery accounts, capital assets,

material and labour costing, in addition

to various minor systems. It is also em-

ployed for refinery optimization using

linear programming (with approximately

250 rows). The equipment is a mixed

disc and magnetic tape system, capable

of printing alpha-number data at the rate

of 1,500 lines per minute.

ROLE OF SHUAIBA AREA AUTHORITY

Shuaiba Area Authority, within whose

territory KNPC's refinery is located, is a

body formed by the State to provide

primary services for industry in the

Shuaiba Industrial Area.

It allocates plots of land to various

industries, and provides roads and sewer-

age for the area. It provides sea water for

cooling purposes, and natural gas needed

as raw material and fuel. It has con-

structed port facilities and an oil pier.

Besides the above direct services,

Shuaiba Area Authority cooperates with

other authorities to provide the industrial

area with electric power and distilled

water, and means of communication. The

Authority controls the security of the area

and plans for fire protection beyond a

single industry's resources.

A computer opetalor changes a disc.

Products are tested in the Laboratory at Shuaiba.

Abdul Rahman Al-Oanrii, head of

Ttaining and Career Development.

recruitment and

trainingThe

recruitment of graduate and skilled

employees comes within the activities

of KNPC's Personnel Department. This

department, which is responsible for the

coordination of long-term planning in

respect of man-power requirements, also

maintains divisions to cover all aspects of

personnel management. These, in addi-

tion to recruitment, include the finalizing

of contracts for approved applicants,

studies regarding salaries and wages, the

preparation of job descriptions, housing,

travel, passports, etc...

The department actively participates in

implementing the Company's goal of

encouraging young Kuwaitis to join

KNPC, and, where applicable, offering

incentive and facility to such employees

to undergo further training for the

development of their careers within the

organization.KNPC 's Training Programme covers a wide range of activities.

amenities

i

Plans are well advanced for the newKNPC Club which will be located on

the Sixth Ring Road. Designed to

cater for all recreational tastes, club

facilities are to include a swimming pool,

tennis courts, snack bar, a children's

playground and paddling pool, etc. In-

doors, there will be bowling, billiards,

table tennis, movies, dancing, a restau-

rant and a library reading room.

The club is designed to compare favour-

ably with the other popular clubs in

Kuwait, but will be exclusively for the

use of KNPC employees and their guests.

The Cafeteria at Shuaiba Refinery

future plans/Si-

KNPC's corporate objectives are so for-

mulated as to consistently be in harmony

with the Kuwait Government's national

oil policies, and to achieve maximumbenefit for Kuwait and to the sharehold-

ers. In order to realize such objectives,

the Company is contirHjally reviewing its

strategies so as to ensure that its re-

sponsibilities are carried out in an orderly

and harmonious way.

In the field of marketing, the Companyis continually endeavouring to open up

new markets. Plans for facilitating this

marketing objective are continually being

evaluated and implemented. Plans to

secure product receiving terminals, ma-

rine bunkering terminals, and an increas-

ing percentage of controlled shipping are

a few examples.

On the manufacturing side, plans for

expanding the Company's existing oper-

ations in the way of removing any

bottlenecks, adding new capacities and

in the way of diversification, are con-

tinually being evaluated and imple-

mented. Furthermore, plans aimed at the

optimization of production from the

refinery and at the yield improvement are

constantly being studied.

A llending a conference at KNPC 's Head Office. Kuwait, are (from feft) : Khafil 4/ Khatif. Deputy t^anaging

Director. Refining: Yusuf Shatfan. Deputy /Managing Director. Ptanning. Finance and Personnet: Ahmed

Abdut fl/lofisin Ai Mutair. Chairman and ti/lanaging Director: Aii Radwan. Deputy fl/lanaging Director.

Projects: Faisaf AfMutawa. Acting Personnel fl/lanager, and Abdul Majid Tarabulsi, Acting Finance

Manager

IT

K.N.P.C. (K.S.C.)

Head Office

Shuaiba Refinery

KNPC (KSC) London Office

KNPC Group of Companies

K.N.P.C. (U.K.) Ltd.

K.N.P.C. (Overseas) Ltd.

P. 0. Box 70 Safat, Kuwait.

P^ 0. Box 9202. Ahmadi, Kuwait.

(Registered in U.K. as an overseas connpany).

25 St James's Street, London, SW1

.

25 St. Jannes's Street, London, SW1Wholly owned by KNPC (U.K.) Ltd.

25 St. James's Street, London, SW1

K.N.P.C. (Far East) K.S.C.

Singapore "Branch Office'

Japan "Branch Office"

K.N.P.C. (Trading & Transport) KSCK.N.P.C. (Western Hemisphere) KSC"Branch Office"

P. 0. Box 70 Safat, Kuwait.

Registered as a company in Singapore.

7th Floor, Room 71 3. Thong Teck BIdg.

15 Scotts Road, Singapore 9.

Registered as a company in Japan.

7th Floor, Mitsui Seimei BIdg.,

2-3 1 -chome, Ohtemachi, Chiyoda-ku,

Tokyo 100.

P 0, Box 70 Safat, Kuwait.

P. 0. Box 70 Safat. Kuwait.

605 Third Avenue - Room 3306,

New York, N. Y. 10016.

KUNPETCO CORPORATION USA 1 11 East Wacker Drive,

Chicago, Illinois 60501

.

26

KUWAIT NATIONAL PETROLEUM COMPANY -K.S.C.

KNPC's Shareholding Interests -

Kuwait Spanish Petroleum Co. (KSC) — KNPC (KSC) is 51% shareholder.

Kuwait Aviation Fuelling Co. (KAFCO) KSC — Wholly owned by KNPC (KSC).

Yemen Kuwait Terminal Company (Aden) Ltd. — KNPC (KSC) is 49% shareholder.

Petrochemicals Industries Co. (KSC) — KNPC (KSC) is 5% shareholder.

Umtali Refinery. Rhodesia — KNPC (KSC) is 5% shareholder.

UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LlBRARr FACILITY

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000 584 745 4

Produced by Mass Consultants and Services

P Box 2064,

KUWAIT

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