The Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) will offer a public tender "in the next few weeks" for a $655-million project to boost oil export capacity to three million barrels a day (bpd) by the end of 2003.
KOC chairman Abdullatif Al-Turah told the Kuwaiti daily Al-Anba that the tender will be put out within the next few weeks for a project ranging between 200 to 300 million dinars.
Turah explained that the project will expand the existing export terminal facilities in the south of the country around the oil town of Al-Ahmadi. It also includes building a huge pumping complex and boosting the number of terminals and power generation, Turah said.
Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) is Kuwait's oil conglomerate, which owns several oil companies inside and outside the emirate. KOC is one of KPC's subsidiaries responsible for production operations in the Gulf state.
Decisions taken by KPC, which is headed by Oil Minister Adil Al-Subaih, must be approved by the Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) and by the cabinet.
Kuwait aims to double production to 900,000 bpd by 2005 from the northern oilfields through a seven-billion-dollar project involving international oil companies (IOCs). ― (AFP, Kuwait City)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
