 Kuwait, the world’s fourth-largest exporter of oil looks to modernise its petroleum sector and invites bids for a new multi-billion-dollar oil refinery. The new Al-Zour refinery is estimated to cost around $15 billion with a capacity of 615,000 barrels per day.
“We will invite bids for the new refinery project in May,” said Nezar al-Adasani, CEO of Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC).
“Another project costing $1.0 billion for the development of heavy oil from northern oilfields will be awarded later in April,” said Adasani.
Faruq al-Zanki, the former CEO of KPC said in 2012 that the emirate had allocated $100 billion to spend on oil projects.
Contracts for another $12-billion project aimed at upgrading two of the three existing refineries, awarded in February, will be signed in the coming week with British, US and Japanese consortia.
Adasani said the new projects are needed to achieve Kuwait’s strategic target of raising its crude oil production to 4.0 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2020.
He also alluded to the fact that Kuwait’s current production capacity is 3.3 million bpd and is intended to hit 3.5 million bpd by 2015.
The oil sector is a major source of public revenues in Kuwait, accounting for up to 94% of earnings. However, major oil projects have seen perpetual delays due to political disputes between parliament and the government.
Kuwait exports the third largest volume of oil amongst the OPEC member nations.
