Kuwait refiner to work on $40b projects this year

Kuwait National Petroleum Co (KNPC), the Gulf state's refiner, expects to start work on projects worth a total of 11 billion dinars ($40.15 billion) this year, the state news agency reported yesterday. The projects include building the Opec's member's fourth refinery and clean fuels projects which will upgrade two of the country's three refineries at a cost of 8.6 billion dinars, Hatem Al Awadhi, deputy managing director of KNPC told Kuna. Al Awadhi said the projects also included building a fifth gas production line at a cost of about 315 million dinars. Refinery project Article continues below Last week, Kuwait's Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) approved the construction of the long-delayed Al Zour refinery which had been expected to start up in 2016 at an estimated cost of 4 billion dinars. The SPC also approved the clean fuels project last week which is expected to cost 4.6 billion dinars. KNPC operates the country's three existing refineries which together can process 930,000 barrels a day. The world's third largest oil exporter plans to increase its refining capacity to 1.4 million barrels a day and Kuwaiti companies are also involved in new refinery projects in Asia. Kuwait sits on 10 per cent of global crude reserves. In January, the government announced plans to spend nearly $5 billion, or around 4 percent of its gross domestic product, on cash grants and free food rations.