Group Takes Kuwait-based Ethylene Unit Offline

19.07.2017

The EQUATE Group, a global producer of petrochemicals, said today that it is taking an unplanned shutdown of its Ethylene Unit 2 (EU2) in Kuwait due to a technical issue.

The EU2 has a production capacity of 850,000 metric tons annually (MTA) and is owned by The Kuwait Olefins Company (TKOC), which is part of the EQUATE Group. The output of other units, such as Ethylene Glycol (EG) and Polyethylene (PE) in Kuwait, was also impacted by this development.

EQUATE Group’s President & CEO, Mohammad Husain said, “We are currently considering all the details and our preliminary assessment suggests resuming normal operations in about two weeks.  Our priorities are simple, which are the safety of everyone and resuming operations at the earliest.”

The EQUATE Group is a global producer of petrochemicals and the world’s second largest producer of Ethylene Glycol (EG).The Group has industrial complexes in Kuwait, North America and Europe that annually produce over 5 million tons of Ethylene, EG, Polyethylene (PE) and Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET). The products are marketed throughout Asia, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The EQUATE Group includes EQUATE Petrochemical Company (EQUATE), its subsidiaries and The Kuwait Olefins Company (TKOC). The Group’s shareholders include Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC), The Dow Chemical Company (Dow), Boubyan Petrochemical Company (BPC) and Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company (QPIC). The EQUATE Group is a leading enterprise that pursues sustainability wherever it operates through partnerships in fields that include the environment, economy and society. www.equate.com