Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) opened the first of two oil gathering centers on Sunday that will enable the emirate to boost its output capacity by some 200,000 barrels per day (bpd).
The G-27 center was one of two built by the Chinese National Petroleum and Engineering Construction Corp. in the western Umm Qadir oilfield at a total cost of $390 million, the largest contract between the two countries.
KOC Chairman Abdullatif al-Torah said the other center is expected to be completed in March and the two would take Kuwait's output capacity past 2.5 million bpd.
Construction of both centers had been delayed for more than two years. Kuwait plans to invite foreign oil majors to develop northern oilfields to double its production to 900,000 bpd by 2005 and raise total output to more than three million bpd.
Kuwait announced last June a $655-million project to boost oil export capacity to three million barrels a day by the end of 2003.
Torah said documents are being prepared for the project, and tenders will be invited within a few months.
The project includes building a huge pumping complex and boosting the number of terminals and power generation. The Gulf Arab monarchy's OPEC quota from February 1 will be 2.021 million bpd.—AFP.
©--Agence France Presse 2001.
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
