Kuwait's Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC) started operations at a $2 billion aromatics plant. The plant is expected to hit full capacity by early December, a company executive said.

The plant, which has a nameplate capacity of 830,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of paraxylene and nearly 400,000 tpy of benzene can produce up to 1 million tpy of light naphtha, and is currently operating at 60 per cent, Saad Al-Ajmi, deputy managing director of administration and finance, told Reuters.

'We started with 60 percent and we will reach 100 percent within a month, which is the first week of December,' he said.

The plant will require about 2.7 million tonnes of naphtha to produce derivatives like brazolinea and benzene, Al-Ajmi said, adding PIC would purchase the feedstock from the Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC). - Reuters