KUWAIT CITY (AFX) - Kuwait will next month invite four bids for the construction of a new 6.3 bln usd oil refinery, reported Al-Watan daily yesterday citing the chairman of Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC).
Manufacturing units in the 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery have been divided into two tenders. The third tender is for building utilities and services and the fourth is for storage tanks and a pier, Sami al-Rasheed told Al-Watan.
The refinery will be built in Al-Zour area, some 100 km (60 miles) south of the capital and near the border with Saudi Arabia.
The giant project is planned to be completed in early 2010.
Kuwait currently has three refineries at Al-Ahmadi, Mina Abdullah and Shuaiba, all in the emirate's oil-rich southern region. They have a combined refining capacity of about 915,000 bpd.
KNPC plans to modernize the first two refineries at an estimated cost of 3 bln usd, a project planned for completion in early 2011.
Once the new refinery and the upgrade project are completed, KNPC plans to shut down the Shuaiba refinery. This will leave Kuwait with three refineries producing a capacity of around 1.4 mln bpd, according to Rasheed.
The OPEC member sits on 10 pct of the world's proven oil reserves and it currently produces 2.6 mln bpd of crude oil at full capacity.
Kuwait plans to invest up to 40 bln usd in the next 15 years to modernize its oil sector which generates more than 90 pct of public revenue. newsdesk@afxnews.com afp/cml COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2005. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News. AFX News and AFX Financial News Logo are registered trademarks of AFX News Limited