Kuwait Petroleum Corp 'planning $74bn projects'

Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC), the Gulf Arab state's top state oil company, plans investments and projects worth 20 billion dinars ($74.85 billion) in the next five years, an official said on Sunday.

The investment figure is higher than an earlier estimate given by Kuwait's Oil Minister Mohammad al-Olaim, who said in June the OPEC producer would spend $55 billion on oil projects over the next five years.

The amount included five billion dinars designated for a planned upgrade of Kuwait's Mina Abdullah and Mina al-Ahmadi refineries, Ali al-Hajeri, head of administrative and financial affairs at KPC, told al-Rai newspaper.

State refiner Kuwait National Petroleum Co (KNPC), a unit of KPC, said in July it planned a tender to boost capacity of the two refineries to 800,000 barrels per day from 600,000 bpd which might be worth as much as four billion dinars. No detailed cost estimate for the project has been given yet.

The projected KPC budget through to 2013 also includes four billion dinars to build the 615,000 bpd al-Zour refinery, Hajeri said.

KPC also planned several other projects to boost productivity and performance of the oil sector, he added.

Kuwait, the world's seventh-largest oil exporter, sits on 10 percent of proven global reserves. (Reuters)