Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) said it will resume imports of liquefied natural
gas (LNG) in March to meet the rising demand in summer from power generators,
state news agency KUNA said on Tuesday.
The Electricity and Water Ministry asked for imports for the period of
mid-March to mid-November, said Abdullatif Al
Houti, managing director for international marketing at KPC, adding that the
extra import demand was around 10-14 shipments.
The Gulf Arab state does not have enough natural gas to meet power demand
and burns a large volume of oil products at power stations. Like its
oil-exporting neighbours, Kuwait has been slow to develop its gas reserves to
meet domestic demand.
Last year, Kuwait signed an agreement with Royal Dutch Shell and Vitol to
supply the OPEC member with liquefied natural gas from 2010-2013.
Kuwait, with one of the world’s highest per capita power consumption rates,
began importing the super-cooled gas for the first time in August 2009 through
a terminal, which can deliver about 500 million cubic feet of gas.
The terminal, the first of its kind in the gas-rich Middle East, is used to
feed Kuwaiti power stations to meet high air-conditioning demand in summer as
an interim solution while Kuwait develops domestic gas reserves.
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