Tsuen Wan International: Kuwait gives the go-ahead to spend $14.5 billion on new Al Zour refinery.

June 29, 2011 - PRLog -- Tsuen Wan International has been told that the Kuwaiti government could turn to private investors to help build its largest oil refinery after a government council revived the 4 billion-dinar ($14.5 billion) project, which stalled two years ago due to political opposition.

The Supreme Petroleum Council, the emirate’s highest decision-making body for oil policy, has approved construction of the 615,000 barrel-a-day Al-Zour facility, Oil Minister Mohammad al-Busairy told Tsuen Wan International recently.


The council authorized the plan on June 28, along with proposals to upgrade two of the country’s three current refineries so that they can produce cleaner-burning fuels, according to the minister. Kuwait is hoping to attract more private investment to help pay for costly industrial improvements and infrastructure as part of a 30.8 billion-dinar development strategy to boost energy output and modernize transport links.

“The public will own a minority share” in the new facility, and the ministry may also seek a foreign partner, Kamel al-Harami, an independent oil analyst in London told reporters. “This is the direction of the Kuwait parliament and government.”

The Gulf nation may require that part of the Al-Zour refinery be reserved for non-government investors, the chairman of state-owned Kuwait Oil Co., Sami al-Rushaid, told Tsuen Wan International from London earlier this month.

Kuwait suspended the project in March 2009 after opposition lawmakers said the leadership had bypassed certain legislation regarding the awarding of contracts to foreign companies without going through the Central Tenders Committee.

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