Kuwait's KNPC to invest $35 billion in transforming the country's oil industry

Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) will invest $35 billion in expansions and new projects in the coming five years, said the company’s chief executive officer Mohammad Ghazi Al Mutairi. Al Mutairi was quoted as saying by Wam news agency.He was speaking at the second day of the third Kuwait Oil and Gas Summit and Exhibition. Al Mutairi underlined that the strategic projects will have great impact on Kuwait’s oil products competitiveness on the global market.“These projects would help Kuwaiti products enter new international markets thanks to its high quality and competitiveness and give a push to national economy and development in the country,” he said, according to Kuna news agency. The KNPC has signed contracts for the $12 billion clean fuel project with three international consortia. The project aims at upgrading and expanding the existing two refineries of KNPC at Mina Abdulla and Mina Al Ahmadi. The project will transform the refineries into an integrated merchant refining complex that meets the requirements of the world oil market. It will also increase the refining capacity to 800,000 barrels a day. The new multi-billion dollar Al Zour refinery will be one of the largest oil refining plants worldwide. It will help supply low sulphur fuel (less than 1 per cent) to the local power plants.Meanwhile, five South Korean companies have won a combined $7.2 billion in orders from KNPC to expand capacity and improve environmental standards at two oil refineries.The contracts, which stem from $12 billion in bids approved in February for the state-run company’s Clean Fuels Project, highlight efforts by South Korean builders to shore up margins via joint bids with other local or foreign firms for major overseas construction projects. Korean companies are increasingly forming consortiums with established overseas companies and that is helping them to win better value contracts, said Yun Sok-mo, an analyst at Samsung Securities.