Kuwait has finally signed the contract for building the $16bn worth Al Zour Refinery by the end of 2019.
The refinery, which is Kuwait’s fourth and has a capacity of 615,000 barrels per day (bpd), will raise the country’s total refining capacity to 1.4mn bpd when completed, Mohammad Ghazi Al-Mutairi, chief executive officer of state-owned Kuwait National Petroleum Co. (KNPC), told Bloomberg at the signing ceremony in Kuwait City.
Al Zour refinery will be integrated with a planned petrochemical complex which KNPC will discuss at an upcoming board meeting, he said.
“Al Zour refinery is one of the world’s largest grass root plants being built from conceptual stage,” Al Mutairi said. “Al Zour refinery along with other ongoing mega projects will change the landscape of the oil refining industry in Kuwait.”
Bloomberg reports that Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co., Tecnicas Reunidas SA and Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. are among companies that have signed contracts today to build Al Zour.
Heavy oil from new fields in Kuwait will be used at the refinery to produce low-sulphur diesel, 340,000bpd of high value light products and 225,000bpd of fuel oil to feed power-generation plants in the country, Al Mutairi said.
The refinery will be built in five packages, with the first valued at $4.24bn awarded to Technicas, Hanwha Engineering & Construction Corp. and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., known as Sinopec, Khaled Al Awadhi, KNPC project manager, said at the signing ceremony.
The second and third packages, at a combined value of $5.79bn, were awarded to Fluor Corp., Daewoo and Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., he said.
The fourth package valued at $1.57bn was given to Saipem SpA and Essar Oil Ltd., and the fifth package of $1.5bn to Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co., Saipem and SK Holdings Co. Ltd, he said.
