Kuwait commissions new gas processing plant

Kuwait has commissioned a new natural gas plant that will raise the energy-rich state's production capacity to more than 2 billion cubic feet a day, officials said on Wednesday.
The new Liquefied Petroleum Gas plant will be capable of processing 805 million cubic feet (22.8 million cubic meters) of gas and 106,000 barrels of other gas products daily, the deputy CEO of national refiner Kuwait National Petroleum Co., Mutlaq al-Azemi, said.
The plant, known as LPG Train-4, was constructed by Daelim, a South Korean firm, at a cost of $900 million (740 million euros).
Azemi said Train-4 would be one of the Gulf's largest LPG plants and would also produce propane, butane and other products.
Kuwait already has three smaller plants with a total capacity of 1.5 billion cubic feet, the majority of which is associated gas produced along with crude oil.
All of Kuwait's gas goes to petrochemical manufacturing and to fuel power plants, Azemi said.
Although it has plentiful domestic reserves, Kuwait has to import gas in summer to meet an increased demand from power stations.
Azemi added that Kuwait planned to increase production of natural gas in the near future, he said, raising its daily output to 4 billion cubic feet by 2030.
The emirate has signed a technical service contract with petrochemical giant Shell to boost production from a number of gas fields in its northern region.