Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) plans to spend US$40bn until 2022 on downstream projects including a new refinery and a clean fuels project
KNPC’s chief executive Mohammed Ghazi al-Mutairi said that the Clean Fuels Project would also include the expansion and modernising of the Mina al-Ahmadi and Mina Abdullah refineries, with a focus on producing high-grade products such as diesel fuel and kerosene for exports.
The al-Zour Refinery, which is due to be completed in 2019, will be the largest in the Middle East with a capacity of 615,000 bpd, KNPC said.
Kuwait currently has three refineries with a combined capacity of 930,000 bpd. The oldest refinery — Shuaiba — with a capacity of 200,000 bpd will be closed after al-Zour goes on stream.
Under the Clean Fuels project, the capacity of the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery will drop to 347,000 bpd from 466,000 bpd, while Mina Abdullah’s will rise to 454,000 bpd from 270,000.
Mutairi added that these projects would be completed between 2018 and 2022.
National Bank of Kuwait’s investment banking arm would advise KNPC on financing options for its multi-billion-dollar Clean Fuels Project. Contracts worth US$12bn were awarded in February this year to international companies including Japan’s JGC Corp, UK’s Petrofac and US-based Fluor Corporation for the construction work on the project.
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