Kuwait's KPC demands Ministry of Electricity to pay $3.3bln

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 4: Not long after the inauguration of the giant liquefied gas facilities project in the Al-Zour Oil Complex, the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation came out with an unexpected surprise when it declared the Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy must pay it more than one billion dinars calling it a debt, reports Al-Rai daily. Informed sources told the daily KPC is charging the ministry the capital cost of the liquefied gas project, which is estimated at $2.93 billion, in addition to the value of the gas that it will import for the projects facilities.

The sources pointed out that the KPC based its claims on the fact that the project is implemented to reduce the cost of fuel used in power plants by importing the necessary quantities of liquefied natural gas to replace gas oil, which contributes to reducing the cost to about 700 million dinars annually until 2040, equivalent to 2 million dinars per day. So far, Electricity has not shown any indications that it accepts or rejects the KPC claims but indicated that it should refer the issue to the Audit Bureau and the Fatwa and Legislation Department for their opinion, in addition to getting in touch with the Ministry of Finance as it is the authority to include this amount in the Electricity budget.