Kuwait National Petroleum Co. (KNPC) has awarded contracts worth a total of 3.48 billion dinars ($11.5 billion) to build the Al-Zour oil refinery south of Kuwait City, Yahoo reported.
The 615,000 barrel per day refinery will be one of the largest oil refining plants in the world. It will supply low sulfur fuel (less than 1 percent compared to current 4 percent sulfur fuel) to local power stations.
In addition to meeting domestic needs, KNPC expects the Al-Zour refinery to enhance the competitiveness of Kuwaiti petroleum products on global markets.
The main process units of the refinery will be supplied by Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas, China’s Sinopec Engineering and South Korea’s Hanwha Engineering and Construction Corp. in a contract valued at $4.25 billion.
Support units and infrastructure services will be provided by a consortium of Daewoo Engineering and Construction, Hyundai Heavy Industries and U.S.-based Fluor Corp. for a combined $5.75 billion.
Another consortium, including Hyundai Engineering and Construction, SK Engineering and Construction and Italy’s Saipem, was awarded a $1.5 billion contract to build a marine export terminal.
The last major contract for the project is planned to be awarded within the next two weeks, a KNPC spokesman told Kuwait’s state news agency KUNA.
Last year Kuwait awarded contracts for a $12-billion project to upgrade two of its three existing refineries.
When that work is completed and the new refinery starts operating, the country’s refining capacity will increase to 1.4 million bpd from the current 930,000 bpd.
