Tuesday, May 22, 2012
BARCELONA (Dow Jones)--One of the biggest challenges to growth in the Middle East refining industry is the shortage of skilled workers, said Saleh Al-jateli, process specialist for Kuwait National Petroleum Co, the refining arm of Kuwait Petroleum Co.
He said Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all look to the same dwindling pool of skilled engineers and manufacturers. Refinery development and investment in the Middle East and Asia has boomed in recent years, while a number of refineries in Europe have been forced to shut because of weak demand and declining refining margins.
"You hardly find youths going to engineering college," he said on the sidelines of the Global Refining Summit in Barcelona. "It's a really tough environment in the Middle East."
The second biggest challenge to KNPC's upgrade project is the uncertain financial situation of some European companies in the refining sector that provide refinery parts to KNPC.
KNPC is undertaking a massive upgrade of two of its three refining complexes and plans to increase its capacity to 1.4 million barrels a day production in 2017 from 900,000 barrels a day. To make the refinery more environmentally friendly and more economical, the Mina Abdullah and Mina Al-Ahmadi refineries will reduce their production of fuel oil from 20% to levels just high enough to fuel tankers.
-By Jenny Gross, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 207 842 9239; jenny.gross@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
22-05-12 1441GMT
