Kuwait Petroleum cut crude processingKuwait's Shuaiba Refinery Cuts Output 20% on Mechanical Faults
By Nesa Subrahmaniyan
May 30 (Bloomberg) -- Kuwait Petroleum Corp., the Middle East's biggest exporter of oil products, cut crude processing at the Shuaiba refinery by 20 percent because of mechanical faults at two units, said four people familiar with the plant's operations.
The refiner will halt spot market sales of naphtha and middle distillate fuels including diesel and kerosene, the people said, asking not to be identified because of company policy. Repairs to the units that turn residual fuel into oil products may take as long as five weeks, they said.
Kuwait Petroleum may lower exports of liquefied petroleum gas and naphtha to customers with annual supply contracts, the people said. The company may tap inventories of diesel and jet fuel to meet term commitments to customers, they said.
Shuaiba, the country's oldest refinery, is processing crude at a rate of about 160,000 barrels a day, compared with 200,000 barrels a day because of the unplanned shutdown of the so-called heavy oil units for repairs, the people said.
The two heavy oil units shut two days ago have a total processing capacity of 54,000 barrels a day, they said.
Kuwait National Petroleum Co., the refining unit of state- owned Kuwait Petroleum, runs two other domestic refineries, Mina al-Ahmadi and Mina Abdulla. The three plants have a total processing capacity of more than 900,000 barrels a day.