Equate Petrochemical Company, Kuwait’s first international petrochemical joint-venture, said it has successfully completed its plants’ turnaround and the first phase of the polyethylene plant debottlenecking project.

With the participation of over 10,000 employees and contractors, Equate has realised the first of its kind international achievement by completing all operations within a record-time for petrochemical plants based on global standards.

In addition, Equate has affirmed its abidance by all local laws and regulations relevant to implementing the strictest guidelines for environment, health and safety (EH&S).

All units were shutdown from November 20 to December 20 and the units resumed their normal operations on December 23, said a statement from Equate.

The TA is a major activity that takes place once every eight years for a 30-day shutdown. All matters are thoroughly planned for technical experts to conduct comprehensive maintenance of a number of industrial units, which include ethylene, polyethylene, ethylene glycol and utilities, while ensuring absolute abidance by international best practices.

As a global achievement, this TA is a distinguished milestone for Equate and its employees, as it also has a significant strategic role in determining the direction of Equate’s future critical projects.

In addition, during the TA, Equate executed the first phase of its polyethylene debottlenecking project. Equate’s current capacity of polyethylene is 825,000 metric tons annually (MTA), and will reach almost 1 million MTA once the debottlenecking project is completed during 2016.

President and CEO Mohammad Husain said: "This excellent achievement by the individual executing the TA deserves utmost appreciation and gratitude. On behalf of Equate, it gives me great pleasure to extend utmost gratefulness for their efforts, dedication and patience to realize such a distinguished milestone in the company’s history."

"All the TA’s phases and steps were completed in cooperation with Kuwait’s Environment Public Authority (EPA) and other bodies by considering all regulations and standards," he noted.

Husain said throughout the years, Equate has launched several world-class EH&S initiatives.

"These initiatives include the Middle East’s first plant water recycle project, Kuwait’s first CO2 recovery project, first seawater cooling towers, first private sector environmental lab, as well as being the First Kuwaiti organization to receive Responsible Care (RC) certification and accreditation relevant to all phases of petrochemical and chemical products from production to final use," he added.

Established in 1995, Equate is an international joint venture between Petrochemical Industries Company, The Dow Chemical Company, Boubyan Petrochemical Company and Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company.-TradeArabia News Service