American and Korean contractors signed a $340-million contract in Kuwait Monday to rebuild the Al-Ahmadi refinery, devastated last June by a huge explosion, an insurance executive here said.
Fluor Daniels of the United States and Korea's Sunkyong Engineering signed the contract with Kuwait Insurance Company (KIC) and Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC), KIC chairman Ali al-Bahar said.
The cost of the reconstruction, slated to be completed in 32 months, will be met by a consortium led by the KIC and comprising a number of international reinsurance firms, Bahar told AFP.
The Al-Ahmadi refinery, which has a capacity of 450,000 barrels per day (bpd), representing half of Kuwait's refined oil exports, was completely shut down for damage assessment following the June 25 explosion in which six people died and 50 were injured.
But a number of units and production lines for aviation fuel and gasoline later resumed operation. The blast forced Oil Minister Sheikh Saud Nasser al-Sabah to submit his resignation in June. The emirate's cabinet in August asked the public prosecution to start a criminal investigation into the incident.
About 40 percent of the emirate's oil exports are in the form of refined products from three refineries with a total capacity of 900,000 bpd.—AFP.
©--Agence France Presse 2001.
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
