State refiner Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) plans to launch tenders for the construction of a fourth refinery before embarking on a $16bn scheme to revamp and expand its existing downstream facilities, although its wait for final approval for both schemes continues.

Kuwait’s Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC), the highest decision-making body in Kuwait’s oil and gas sector that is responsible for approving the long delayed projects, is expected to make a decision within months, according to a senior official at KNPC.

“We are very optimistic, we think we will have the final approval to go ahead with the refinery and also the clean fuel project within the coming few months,” says Bakhit al-Rashidi, deputy managing director for planning and local marketing at KNPC, at the sidelines of a conference in Abu Dhabi.

While both projects, worth an estimated $31bn-plus are expected given the green light at the same time, construction of the fourth refinery will be prioritised.

“The refinery will go first, and then the clean fuel project will go second,” says Al-Rashidi.

The front-end engineering and design (feed) work for the for the 615,000 barrel-a-day (b/d) refinery has already been completed, and once the SPC has given its approval, preparations for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) tenders will commence.

“One year from the go ahead, we will see the first tender,” said Al-Rashidi.

Engineering contractors in Kuwait have questioned whether the country will be able to cope with the logistics of building both schemes at the same time, since both will require between 60,000-100,000 labourers during peak construction (MEED 25:2:11).

Kuwait is planning a major overhaul of its refining sector, raising the quality of its products, as well as increasing capacity to 1.4 million b/d from 800,000 b/d currently.