Kuwait is planning to increase its refining capacity to two million barrels a-day (b/d) by 2040 through the construction of two new refineries.

Each refinery will have a capacity of 300,000 b/d, according to Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) chief executive officer Nizar al-Adsani.

Al-Adsani said feasibility studies are ongoing for one refinery that is currently being referred to as “the fifth refinery”.

Under current plans it is expected to be completed by 2025 and will push Kuwait’s total refining capacity up to 1.7 million b/d.

In December last year MEED revealed that KPC was considering this fifth refinery project.

The construction of the fifth refinery will be followed by another refinery, which will be completed before 2040 and will take the country’s total refining capacity to 2 million b/d.

Both of these refineries will have integrated elements, according to Al-Adsani.

"I think the winners in the energy sene are the people willing to integrate: upstream, downstream, the whole value chain," he said.

"This is what the NOCs are working on - and once you secure that value chain you will mitigate any volatility in prices.”

Kuwait already has three giant refinery schemes currently under execution.

Construction work is ongoing on a megaproject to build a $17bn refinery in the Al-Zour region, known as the New Refinery Project.

State-owned Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC) is the project owner and says the scheme is due to be completed before the end of 2019.

The main engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) deals for the New Refinery Project were awarded in mid-2015, and are all currently under execution.

Kuwait is also currently overhauling and expanding two other refineries as part of its $14bn Clean Fuels Project 2020.

A project consisting of two packages is currently under execution and includes expanding and upgrading the Mina Abdullah refinery.

Another project to expand and upgrade the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery consists of one package and is also under execution.

All three packages were awarded in February 2014 and are expected to be completed in mid-2018.