Kuwait will not slow the development of its oil sector projects despite the low crude prices, Oil Minister Ali Al-Omair was quoted in reports as saying.
Omair, who is also the chairman of state energy giant Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC), told a conference that the oil and gas industry around the globe was keen on absorbing impact of declining oil prices, especially with the emergence of other lucrative energy resources.
Nizar Al-Adsani, KPC CEO also told the conference that his company had spent $13.2bn in the 2014-15 and $6.62bn so far in the current fiscal year on “strategic oil projects”.
KPC was now studying several investment opportunities, including petrochemicals, in Asia and North America, Adsani said.
Apparently, Omair has launched initiatives aimed at supporting partnerships to back the national economy coupled with boosting private sector’s role in development.
These initiatives, he said, “encourage transfer of knowledge, modern technology and services, in addition to offering training for national manpower towards the establishment of manufacturing industries in Kuwait”.
Omair assured that low oil prices would not undermine Kuwait’s plans to develop strategically important oil projects, which included oil and gas exploration, refining and distribution of crude oil.
“These projects will improve the environment and safety performance in our refineries, as well as providing new jobs and supporting economic growth in the country,” he said.
Omair said the clean fuel project aims at developing and expanding the refineries in Mina Abdullah and Mina Ahmadi with the objective of transforming them into a refining complex, designed to address oil market needs and boost the competitive nature of the Kuwaiti products.
Omair said the Zour refinery project, which would produce 615,000 barrels per day (bpd), was on schedule and would ultimately provide low-sulphur fuel to power stations. He called for doubling efforts to provide sustainable energy for the future generations.
Kuwait currently produces about 3mn bpd of crude oil and by 2020 it will be able to produce 4mn bpd, Adsani said. He said KPC would build four gathering centres to boost natural gas and heavy oil production.
KPC has allocated a whopping $106bn for development projects in the five-year plan. KPC, he added, was contributing to the development of private sector’s role in development as well as diversifying income.
