Kuwait and Louisiana to study joint oil refinery
J. Bernhard
Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer
Salary: USD 1,028,772
Bonus: USD 850,000
Age: 51
Reuters
Nov. 13, 2006
KUWAIT, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Kuwait and Louisiana signed on Sunday an initial agreement to study building a joint venture oil refinery in the southern U.S. state.
Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ali al-Jarrah al-Sabah and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco told a new conference after signing a memorandum of understanding that the size of the refinery and its cost were yet to be determined.
"This MOU establishes Kuwait's strong interest in Louisiana as a viable site for the first greenfield crude oil refinery in the U.S. in 30 years," a statement said.
OPEC producer Kuwait is also studying plans to build a multi-billion-dollar refinery and petrochemical plant in south China with PetroChina (PTR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) (0857.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) and recent reports said it may enter into joint venture refining deals in India.
The statement said the two officials discussed Kuwait's desire to increase refining capacity in the United States, and that Blanco requested that such new capacity be added in Louisiana.
The accord between state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and the state of Louisiana sets up teams "to explore the steps, approvals and incentives required for the project's viability," the statement added.
Blanco said her state moves 26 percent of the U.S. natural gas supply and 25 percent of the nation's crude oil supply.
The Shaw Group (SGR.N: Quote, Profile, Research), a U.S. construction firm based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has worked to pursue this Kuwaiti venture and is proposing to be a joint venture partner, Blanco said.
KPC is in charge of the upstream and downstream oil sectors in Kuwait, which now produces about 2.5 million barrels per day of oil and has a domestic refining capacity of up to 930,000 bpd from three refineries.
Kuwait recently dropped a plan to sell a KPC subsidiary's 80,000-bpd refinery in Rotterdam, saying it wanted to add rather than divest downstream assets. |