As early as 1953, Kuwait Oxygen & Acetylene Co. Pioneered to be the first gas manufacturing facility in the Gulf region providing oxygen to the flourishing local petroleum industry. Over the time, the economic & industrial expansion & by virtue of being in the nerve center of Gulf’s oil reach region a need for specialized manufacturer with a clear focus on industrial customers arouse. This led to be the establishment of Kuwait Industrial Gases company (KIGC) in 1971, which is another addition to Gulf Cryo Holding. Since then the company has been manufacturing and delivering gases to region’s oil sector.

Oil & Gas
Nitrogen is Gulf Cryo's leading product for the oil & gas sector, it is widely used in refineries thanks to its inerting properties. In normal refinery operations, N2 is used for blanketing of tanks, preventing the release of hydrocarbon emission, or preventing the ingress of oxygen into vacuum units. N2 is also used to clam chemical reactions and safety shutdown, or start-up the various units that constitute the refinery.
Environmental regulation have helped Gulf Cryo supply increasing amount of hydrogen to refineries. H2 is mainly used to achieve lower sulfur content in hydrocrackers, and hydro-treaters. To further improve on sulphur recovery efficiency, oxygen is injected in a claus type sulfur unit, thus providing a capacity advantage as well as combustion efficiency at the furnace. In addition to sulphur recovery applications, O2 is widely used for breaking of heavy hydrocarbons during the catalytic cracking process.
Oil service companies also rely on Gulf Cryo to supply nitrogen mainly used for oil well pressurization, and purging applications.

Petrochemicals
Oxygen is used in its purest form as process oxygen constituting the oxidizing agent in chemical reactions such as in the production of ethylene oxide. It is also used in either its pure or impure form for debottlenecking needs, by enriching combustion in air oxidation processes. As for nitrogen, process usages are somewhat limited to applications such as carrier gas, temperature control, and catalyst capabilities. However, nitrogen usages are more important in applications relating to safety and services needs such as blanketing, purging, drying, fire extinction, instrument fluids, valve sealing and more. Hydrogen usages in the petrochemical industry are process based mainly in the production of cyclohexanes, oxoachohols and others.
Gulf Cryo has membership with the Compressed Gas Association (CGA), European Industrial Gases Association (EIGA), and International Oxygen Manufacturing Association (IOMA).

Gas Applications

Industrial gases have been used in the oil, gas and petrochemical industries ever since commercial production of oil has started. The applications and use of gases are expansive and vary with the operational requirements, Nitrogen gas is injected into oil wells in the coil tubing operation applications for improving the fluid recovery. Low explosion limit gas mixtures are used for checking the gas detectors in the refineries. At location where carbon dioxide is available in economic qualities, it is injected in the oil wells for increasing productivity, a process called Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR).