Kuwait spares $100 bln for five-year oil projects
KUWAIT CITY - Agence France-Presse
Kuwait says it sits on 10 percent of the world’s proven crude reserves and is pumping 3 million barrels per day. EPA photo
Kuwait plans to spend some $100 billion on oil projects inside and outside the Gulf state over the next five years, a top oil executive said yesterday.“Around $100 billion has been earmarked for oil projects ... 60 percent of it on upstream projects inside and outside Kuwait,” CEO of national oil conglomerate Kuwait Petroleum Corp. Faruq al-Zanki told reporters.
Modernizing refineries
The expenditure is part of the emirate’s long-term strategy to raise output capacity to 4 million barrels per day from the current 3 million, Zanki said on the sidelines of the Kuwait Energy Projects conference organized by the Middle East Economic Digest (MEED).
Construction of a new 615,000 bpd refinery and the clean fuel project to modernize two of the country’s three refineries, both costing $30 billion, are part of the spending plan, Zanki said.
New consultants
National refiner Kuwait National Petroleum Co. (KNPC) last month appointed Foster Wheeler and Amec companies as consultants for the two projects slated to be completed by 2018.
Zanki said that KNPC, a subsidiary of KPC, expects to tender the two projects by the start of next year after they had been repeatedly delayed due to political bickering.
The two projects are projected to raise Kuwait’s refining capacity to 1.4 million bpd from the current 930,000 bpd. When the two projects are complete, Kuwait plans to shut the Shuaiba refinery.
Kuwait is engaged in advanced talks with China and Vietnam for multi-billion-dollar joint ventures to build two oil refinery and petrochemical complexes.
The emirate also has oil production operations in several countries through its state-owned Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co. (KUFPEC). Kuwait Petroleum International runs refineries and petrol stations in Europe as well.
Kuwait, the third largest producer in Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), says it sits on 10 percent of the world’s proven crude reserves and is pumping 3 million bpd.
The demand in Kuwaiti and Saudi oil jumped with the Western sanction on Iranian crude.
Firm merges fleet with state line
Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco says it has agreed to merge its maritime division with the country’s state-owned shipping line to create the world’s fourth-largest tanker operation.
Aramco CEO Khaled Al-Faleh says the $1.3 billion merger will transfer the fleet of the company’s sea-going subsidiary, Vela International, to the state shipping company Bahri. The deal announced Monday is subject to shareholder approval as well as the green light by regulatory authorities.
Under the terms of deal, Vela will transfer its entire operations and fleet that includes 14 large crude carriers. For an initial 10-year period, Bahri will be the exclusive provider of crude shipping services for Aramco. DUBAI – The Associated Press
