Kuwait’s Al Zour refinery faces delay

KUWAIT CITY, June 23, 2015 – The startup of Kuwait’s Al Zour crude oil refinery, planned for late 2018 or early 2019, faces a delay due to rising construction costs.

A spokesman for the Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) said on Monday that the increasing costs have left the project with a funding shortfall.

The state refining company is seeking added financing from the government. “We are already two months behind and we don’t know when we will get the funds,” the spokesman told Reuters.

KNPC CEO Mohammed Ghazi Al Mutairi has been quoted by local media as saying the project will need another 800 million dinars ($2.65 billion) to proceed.

Al Zour, the country’s fourth refinery, is poised to deliver a major expansion to Kuwait’s refining capacity by adding 615,000 barrels per day. Capacity in 2014 stood at 930,000 barrels per day.

Al Mutairi announced in late 2014 that the KNPC would invest $40 billion in the country’s downstream industry by 2018.

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