Kuwait Petroleum plans $80 billion investment

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} The Kuwait Petroleum Corporation announced its intention yesterday to invest around $80 billion over the next five years to increase production and expand refinery capacity.   Sheikh Nawaf Saud Nasir Al Sabah, deputy managing director and general counsel, made the announcement at the Wharton Global Forum in Dubai.   Although he admitted the global economic crisis had forced the company to rethink some of its timings, he said: "Our essential elements remain unchanged. We are planning to deploy our considerable resources to position ourselves to capture market opportunities on the way down and on the inevitable way up."   He said the five-year plan would include increasing production capacity to three million barrels per day (bpd) next year with an additional 500,000 bpd over five years. He said the company also intended to expand its refinery capacity in Kuwait to 1.4 million bpd by building a new refinery and upgrading existing ones.   ┬á*┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *  (Source: arabianbusiness.com)