Kuwait: Sheikh Sabah inaugurates superior export pier at Al-Ahmadi refinery |
|
Network this!
Kuwait - Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah yesterday inaugurated the largest and the most advanced export pier at Al-Ahmadi refinery, which is designed to boost Kuwait's exports of crude and oil products.
South Korean Hyundai Engineering built the pier, at a cost of KD 100 million, using state-of-the-art technology, the first of its kind in the Middle East, chairman of Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) Sami Al-Rasheed said. The new pier, which has satellite connections for safety measures, can handle four tankers of various sizes at the same time and will reduce loading time from 48 to 30 hours, Rasheed said.
The pier, extending some 2.1 kilometres into the Gulf waters, has six platforms, four of which are designated export of crude oil, LPG, methane and petroleum products and the remaining two as stand-by platforms, he said. Two more platforms can be added in the future if needed.
The pier can load tankers of various sizes with capacities ranging from 10,000 tonnes to super tankers of 350,000-tonne capacity, Rasheed added. The old pier at Al-Ahmadi refinery was first built in 1948 and modernised in 1985. The new pier is designed to serve for the next 30 years. The old pier could handle tankers with deadweight of 100,000 tonnes while the new one can deal with tankers of 160,000 tonnes, he said.
'The old pier was no longer capable of meeting our export requirements and the new one was built to increase our export capacity of petroleum products,' Rasheed said. The new pier is part of Kuwait's ongoing long-term strategy to raise production and export capacities to four million barrels a day by 2020, Energy Minister Sheikh Ahmad Fahd Al-Sabah told reporters after the opening ceremony. 'This will be a new addition to the Kuwaiti oil facilities and is part of the projects on the road towards our 2020 strategy that aims at boosting production and export capacities to four million barrels a day,' he said. 'We are sending a message to the world oil market that we are pumping more investments in the fields of production and export to be in line with the future increase in global demand for oil,' he said.
The minister said the project is also a part of a plan to modernise the infrastructure of the country's oil sector. He said two projects will be offered in the coming few months. One calls for modernising the pipeline network and the second for modernising the export facilities at a total cost of $2 billion. 'With those two projects, Kuwait's production and export facilities will be modernised in full,' Sheikh Ahmad said. 'These will enable us to increase production to four million barrels a day and also will be able to export the full quantity,' he said.
Kuwait is also planning to build a fourth refinery with a daily capacity of 400,000 barrels a day to boost the country's refining capacity to well over 1.2 million barrels a day, he said. The country has also ordered seven tankers of various sizes from South Korean companies and the first tanker will be delivered in 2006, he said. Kuwait is due to lay the foundation stone for a mega petrochemicals project early next month.
The olefins project is being carried out in strategic partnership with Dow Company. Another aromatic petrochemicals project is in the planning stage, the minister said. 'We will undertake oil projects at a value of $10 billions in the next four years,' he said. 'These plans will be accompanied by a marketing policy to sell the new production,' Sheikh Ahmad said.
Recently Kuwait signed a contract with South Korea to raise its crude exports from 120,000 barrels a day to 200,000 barrels. Kuwait is planning to open a marketing office in Beijing later this month with the aim to target the Chinese market and increase the current exports of 20,000 barrels a day to 350,000 barrels, the minister said.
By B. Izzak
© Kuwait Times 2005
Community Comments (0) - 
Comment on this article 
Comment on this article
The opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect Zawya. Read our Comment Policy.
Loading ...
Zawya Comment Policy:
-
Zawya encourages you to add a comment to this discussion. You agree that when you add content to this discussion your comments will not:
1.1 Contain any material which is libelous or defamatory of any person, is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory or causes damage to the reputation of any person or organisation.
1.2 Promote sexually explicit material, violence, discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age or any illegal activity.
1.3 Be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.
1.4 Be threatening, abuse or invade another's privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.
1.5 Be used to impersonate any person, to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person, or be likely to deceive any person.
1.6 Give the impression that they represent Zawya.
1.7 Advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse. - The content posted on www.zawya.com is created by members of the public. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not those of Zawya. Zawya reserves the right to review all comments prior to posting and edit or delete any contribution, but Zawya is not responsible for and can not be held liable for any content posted by members of the public on www.zawya.com.
- Zawya is not responsible for the availability or content of any third party sites that are accessible through www.zawya.com. Any links to third party websites from www.zawya.com do not amount to any endorsement of that site by Zawya and any use of that site by you is at your own risk.
- By submitting your comment, you hereby give Zawya the right, but not the obligation, to post, air, edit, exhibit, telecast, webcast, re-use, publish, reproduce, use, license, print, distribute or otherwise use your comments worldwide, in perpetuity.
Post Your Tender Notices for FREE
(No Sign-in Required)
Zawya Tenders is a Tender Notices service entirely driven by contribution
from issuers in both public and private sectors. It is not an e-tendering service and is entirely FREE.
As an Issuer, you can benefit from posting an unlimited number of Tender
Notices for FREE and reaching out to an online community of bidders.
The service also offers you a tool to track the interest of bidders to your
tenders 'live' online.
from issuers in both public and private sectors. It is not an e-tendering service and is entirely FREE.
As an Issuer, you can benefit from posting an unlimited number of Tender
Notices for FREE and reaching out to an online community of bidders.
The service also offers you a tool to track the interest of bidders to your
tenders 'live' online.
| Tender Notice | Due Date |
Community Buzz
Stories
Companies
Most viewed companies by Community in the last 24 hrs
| Company Name | Country | Industry |
| Saudi Binladin Group | Saudi Arabia | Construction and Design |
| Consolidated Contractors Company | Overseas | Construction and Design |
| Saudi Electricity Company | Saudi Arabia | Electric Utilities |
| Dodsal Engineering and Construction | UAE | Construction and Design |
| Saudi Telecom | Saudi Arabia | Telecommunications Services |
| Emirates Telecommunications Corporation | UAE | Telecommunications Services |
| Saudi Basic Industries Corporation | Saudi Arabia | Petrochemicals |
| Al Azizia Panda United Company | Saudi Arabia | General Retailers |
| Agility Public Warehousing Company | Kuwait | Transportation Services |
| Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation | Egypt | Oil |
Projects
Most viewed projects by Community in the last 24 hrs
| Project Name | Country | Sector |
| Takreer - Ruwais Refinery Expansion | UAE | Oil and Gas |
| ENEC - Nuclear Power Plant | UAE | Power and Water |
| Emirates Aluminium (EMAL) - Smelter Complex - Phase 1 | UAE | Industry |
| SATORP - Jubail Refinery and Petrochemical Complex | Saudi Arabia | Oil and Gas |
| Dubai RTA - Dubai Metro | UAE | Infrastructure |
| Qatar Foundation - Sidra Medical and Research Center | Qatar | Real Estate |
| SATORP- Jubail Refinery and Petrochemical Complex - Conversion Unit and Sulphur Package (Part 2) | Saudi Arabia | Oil and Gas |
| ADNOC/ConocoPhillips - Sour Gas Fields Development - Shah Field | UAE | Oil and Gas |
| Abu Dhabi DOT - Abu Dhabi Metro | UAE | Infrastructure |
| Takreer - Ruwais Refinery Expansion - Offsites and Utilities Package | UAE | Oil and Gas |