Kuwait's state-run Petrochemical Industries Co (PIC) said on Sunday it has declared force majeure to customers of its aromatics plant after an outage last week and expects to restart the facility on January 24. "We have declared force majeure for the customers," Managing Director of PIC Maha Mulla Hussain told Reuters.

All exports were affected, she said. It would take one week to restart the plant after the outage, which was due to a technical failure in a compressor, she added.

Reuters reported the outage from trade sources on Thursday. The plant, which uses at least 1.5 million tonnes of full-range naphtha as feedstock, was commissioned around November last year. It can produce up to 1.0 million tonnes of light naphtha a year and around 1.2 million tonnes of aromatics per year when at full-tilt.

PIC and Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) each have a 40 percent stake in Kuwait Aromatics, with Qurain Petrochemical Industries holding a 20 percent share.

Copyright Reuters, 2010