Ambitious refinery upgrade and addition projects centred in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran and Iraq mean the OPEC nations will increasingly compete as clean fuel suppliers, Bassam Fattouh, director of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies told the Platts refining summit in Brussels

Projects such as the 400,000 barrel per day (bpd) Jizan refinery in Saudi Arabia, the 615,000 bpd Al Zour in Kuwait and various projects for refinery upgrades in Iran and Iraq will enable the countries to export more fuels

Fattouh said Iran would stop importing gasoline in 2018, due to new condensate splitter start-ups, while Saudi Arabia is also becoming self sufficient in gasoline due in part to rising prices that curtail domestic consumption

"We can no longer think about Middle East producers only competing in crude," Fattouh said, adding competition for diesel exports would be particularly intense

"There will be competition among themselves, but also with other refiners," Fattouh said (Reporting by Libby George; Editing by Mark Potter)

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