Refining Report: Major projects under way in Middle East

Countries in the region are expanding plants and building grassroots facilities, with countries in Africa keen to cut their fuel import bills

The Middle East is forecast to add approximately 1.6m b/d of new distillation capacity between 2022 and 2027, according to OPEC. Around 38% of this new capacity is attributed to the startup of Kuwait’s 615,000b/d Al Zour refinery, the region’s largest refining complex. However, several Middle Eastern countries are also investing in new capacity through facility expansions and/or grassroots facilities. These projects not only include increasing distillation capacity but also boosting secondary unit capacity by 3m b/d by 2028. Most secondary unit capacity additions (more than 2m b/d) will be in new desulphurisation units to produce high-quality, ultra-low-sulphur (ULS) fuels for both domestic