By Miyoko Ishigami
(with photos) BEIJING, April 28 (KUNA) -- Kuwait is keen to reach common ground with China on their joint venture refinery's location in south China's Guangdong Province, visiting Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah said Tuesday.
Speaking to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) prior to his talks with Chinese officials, Sheikh Ahmad said, "I hope we will have candid exchange of views on the issue and cooperatively work to determine the best way." The planned Sino-Kuwaiti oil refinery and petrochemical complex in Guangdong was expected to be built in Nansha area of provincial capital Guangzhou, the densely populated heart of the Pearl River Delta.
The minister said he will also take up relocation issue during the meeting later this week with provincial Communist Party chief Wang Yang, Guangdong's top leader.
The minister arrived in Beijing on Monday for a five-day official visit.
Estimated at USD 9.0 billion, the project would be the largest Sino-foreign joint venture in China. Kuwait signed MoU with China in 2005 to construct the integrated complex, in hopes of participating in the long-term development of hydrocarbon sector in the world's second-biggest oil consuming market.
In 2006, the Chinese central government and the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planning agency, gave a preliminary approval of the project and designated Nansha as its site.
The envisaged refinery would be designed to process 100 percent Kuwaiti crude supplied by state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) with a capacity of 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), and the ethylene cracker unit is slated to have an annual production capacity of one million tons.
Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI), KPC's international unit specializing in refinery projects, has teamed up with China's biggest oil refiner Sinopec Corp. for the project, with an eye to put the plant on-stream by 2012.
Kuwait has been moving up a gear to take part in downstream projects in China, Vietnam and India, a move that would guarantee crude oil demand from promised importers of the world's fastest-growing economies.
On Monday, the minister revealed that Kuwait eyes entry into Vietnam's fuel distribution market with its refinery partners.
"Together with our Japanese and Vietnamese partners, we are considering launching a fresh project for the marketing of fuel products manufactured by our refinery, because most of its output will be consumed in Vietnam," he told KUNA.
The planned plant will refine Kuwaiti crude oil to churn out high-priced petroleum products such as gasoline and kerosene. The Kuwaiti minister also said the alliance might start distribution business even before completion of construction of the 200,000 bpd plant, which is scheduled to go onstream in 2013.
KPI established joint venture in April last year with Japan's third-biggest refiner Idemitsu Kosan Co. and Mitsui Chemicals Inc., as well as PetroVietnam to build the USD 6.0 billion refinery and petrochemical complex, located about 180 kilometers south of the capital Hanoi. (end) mk.ema KUNA 280901 Apr 09NNNN