Kuwait National Petroleum Co awarded $11.5bn worth of contracts yesterday to build the Al Zour oil refinery, which would be one of the largest in the Middle East


Reuters/Khobar, Saudi Arabia


Kuwait National Petroleum Co (KNPC) awarded 3.48bn dinars ($11.5bn) worth of contracts yesterday to build the Al Zour oil refinery, which would be one of the largest in the Middle East, Kuwaiti state news agency KUNA reported.
Construction of the 615,000 barrel per day refinery could be a major boost to Kuwait’s economy, which has slowed in recent years by political tensions and is now grappling with a blow to state finances from low oil prices. The project was originally planned more than a decade ago but has been delayed repeatedly by bureaucratic and political problems, including conflict between Kuwait’s parliament and the cabinet.
State-owned KNPC commissioned a consortium including Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas, China’s Sinopec and South Korea’s Hanwha Engineering and Construction to build the main process units of the refinery, KUNA said.
That contract is worth 1.28bn dinars.
A consortium including Daewoo Engineering and Construction , Hyundai Heavy Industries and Fluor Corp of the US will build support units and infrastructure services for 1.74bn dinars.
Another consortium including Hyundai Engineering and Construction, SK Engineering and Construction and Italy’s Saipem was awarded a 454mn dinar contract to build a marine export terminal, KUNA quoted KNPC spokesman Khalid al-Asousi as saying.
Asousi said he expected the last major contract for the project to be awarded in the next two weeks, while signing of all contracts was to take place in early October. Kuwait’s Supreme Petroleum Council agreed this month to increase Al Zour’s total budget to 4.87bn dinars from about 4bn dinars.
Officials have said the refinery is to start up by late 2018 or early 2019, providing low-sulphur fuel to power stations, but it is not clear if that timeframe can still be met.
Oil minister Ali Saleh al-Omair told KUNA this month that there were proposals to build a petrochemical complex alongside the refinery. He did not elaborate.