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Kuwait will soon commission an oil pipeline that will feed its largest refinery in the Southern Al-Zour area after nearly two years of delay, a newspaper said on Tuesday.
The contract to build the pipeline at a cost of around 256.9 million Kuwaiti dinars ($848 million) was awarded to a foreign firm in August 2017 and work had been due to be completed after three years, the Arabic language daily Al-Anba said.
But corrosion in the pipes in some areas because of mud and other problems forced the state-owned Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) to delay the execution of the project, the paper said without naming that firm.
“KOC imposed a fine of 7-9 million dinars ($23-30 million) on the contractor for the delay and for failing to provide dewatering systems as per the contract….this led to the erosion of the pipes in those areas,” the paper said.
It quoted KOC sources as saying the commission of the pipeline would allow the Company, which manages Kuwait’s upstream sector, to fully operate $16-billion Al-Zour oil refinery, with a capacity of 615,000 bpd.
(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)
