5-year timeframe on KD 37 bn CAPEX plan: KPC

KFAED, Tunisia ink initial agreement to build four hospitals

KUWAIT CITY, May 25, (KUNA): Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) is eyeing a capital expenditure (CAPEX) plan worth KD 37 billion over the next five years, KPC CEO Nizar Al-Adsani said on Wednesday.

In a speech during a ceremony to sign a loan to fund the company’s “Biofuel” project, Al-Adsani said that the plan aims to ratchet up oil production to 4 million barrels per day (bpd).

Moreover, he said that the foreign funding would lead to closer ties with top oil exporting nations, allowing them the chance to be a part of the company’s development plans.

Meanwhile, CEO of Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) Mohammad Al-Mutairi said that foreign funding will make the “Biofuel” project more productive.

On the project, Al-Mutairi noted that it has been 84 percent completed and that “foreign funding on the project, which is expected to be completed in 2018, is worth KD 3.1 billion.” KNPC’s Deputy CEO for Planning and Finance Shukri Al-Mahrous said that dealing with credit agencies is a difficult process, citing a pact reached with seven reputable global credit agencies.

The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) has signed an initial loan agreement worth KD 24 million ($79 million) with Tunisia’s Ministry of Development, Investment and International Cooperation (TIDAD) for the construction of four hospitals.

The four hospitals will be established in the governorates of Siliana, Jendouba, Sidi Bouzid and Kairouan, he said, indicating that the delegation paid a visit to the sites where hospitals will be founded.

It is the 39th loan provided by KFAED to Tunisia, and the visit comes to honor Kuwait’s pledges made during the international conference in support of economic, social and sustainable development in Tunisia, TUNISIA 2020, last November.

Kuwait at the conference announced that it would finance development projects with a total of $500 million in the next five years.