Kuwait: Sheikh Sabah inaugurates superior export pier at Al-Ahmadi refinery |
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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
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