Kuwait and Korean Firms Seal $2.9 Billion LNG Deal
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SUBSCRIPTION THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2016 JAMADA ALTHANI 22, 1437 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Sawaber tenants Suspect remanded From Senegal to Germany beat fume; evacuation as hijacking sparks Libya: An African Italy; 1st time in ultimatum expires social media buzz student joins IS over 20 years 3Kuwait7 and Korean13 firms19 Min 14º Max 27º seal $2.9 billion LNG deal High Tide 05:22 & 15:53 KPC, BP to explore opportunities in oil, gas, petrochemicals Low Tide 10:22 & 23:29 40 PAGES NO: 16830 150 FILS KUWAIT: Kuwait yesterday inked a $2.93 billion contract with three South Korean firms for the construction of the largest Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) import facility in the oil-rich country. The project, to be built at the Al-Zour refinery near the border with Saudi Arabia, was awarded to Hyundai Engineering Co, Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co and Korea Gas Corporation. CEO of national refiner Kuwait National Petroleum Co Mohammad Al-Mutairi, who signed the contract, said the project is slated to be completed in the first quarter of 2021. OPEC member Kuwait is rich with crude oil but its natural gas production is too small to meet its needs. Every year it imports large LNG quantities to supply power plants, especially during the summer, and for use in the petrochemicals industry. The facility will be part of a huge complex being built in Al-Zour, south of Kuwait City, which will also houses a state-of-the-art 615,000 barrel-per-day refin- ery and a petrochemicals plant. Mutairi said the cost of the complex is expected to reach $30 billion. In October, Kuwait awarded contracts worth $13.2 billion to 10 international firms to build the refinery, which is set to come on stream in late 2019. In 2014, the State gave out contracts for a $12 billion project to upgrade BRUSSELS: People hang a flag of Kuwait on the two of its three existing refineries. Kuwait sits on 101.5 Place de la Bourse (Beursplein) in central Brussels, billion barrels of crude reserves-equivalent to around days after a triple bomb attack hit Brussels’ air- 7.0 percent of the world’s proven reserves, according to KUWAIT: Representatives of the Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) and South Korean repre- port and the Maalbeek subway station, killing 32 the latest OPEC figures-and pumps around 3.0 million sentatives of the Hyundai Engineering and Construction (HDEC) pose for a family photo after signing people and wounding 300 others. — AFP barrels per day. an agreement as part of a Liquefied Natural Gas import project yesterday at the KNPC headquarters in Continued on Page 13 Al-Ahmadi. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat Dubai introduces ‘passenger tax’ $9.50 airport tax per traveler DUBAI: The emirate of Dubai, whose air- course D, at a cost of $1.2 billion. Dubai port is the world’s busiest for internation- has a smaller second airport, Al- News al passengers, announced yesterday it Maktoum International, which opened in in brief was introducing a tax on travelers to help 2013 and will receive 120 million passen- finance expansion, as Gulf governments gers a year once completed. grapple with plummeting revenues. The The receipts of the new tax will be Civil ID fee raised 35-dirham ($9.50) fee will apply to all channeled into funding the expansion of from ‘KD 2 to KD 5’ passengers, including those transiting in Dubai airports, the statement said. By A Saleh Dubai, on all flights from June 30, accord- Although part of the oil-rich United Arab KUWAIT: The Minister of Social Affairs and Labor and Minister of State for Planning ing to a statement carried by WAM state Emirates, Dubai has dwindling oil wealth, and Development Affairs Hind Al-Subaih (center) is pictured with some Kuwait MPs KUWAIT: The Public Authority of Civil Information news agency. and its revenues are diversified com- during the parliamentary session yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat (PACI)’s director Musaed Al-Assoussi said that the new It is the first time Dubai has pared to its oil-dependent Gulf peers. civil ID fees would be in effect from Sunday and that the announced a passenger tax, which is But the whole region is struggling to fee would be KD 5 instead of KD 2. Al-Assoussi added imposed in many airports worldwide. cope with a sharp drop in oil revenues Assembly panel to discuss that the decision includes increasing the fees re-issue in More than 78 million passengers passed since crude prices nosedived. Situated cases of loss or damage from KD 10 to 20. The civil ID through Dubai International in 2015, on transcontinental air routes, Dubai is power rates next Sunday fees could be paid online at the PACI’s website. keeping its place as the world’s busiest one of several Gulf-based airports to for international passengers since over- experience prodigious growth in recent MPs debate KIA report taking London Heathrow in 2014. Last years. Around 100 airlines fly to more Saudi executes two month, Dubai Airports increased the than 240 destinations from the interna- KUWAIT: Head of the National Assembly rent electricity charges of 2 fils per kilowatt citizens for murder capacity of its main airport to 90 million tional hub, which is also home to carrier Financial and Economic Affairs Committee to as follows: For consumption of up to RIYADH: Saudi Arabia executed two citizens con- passengers with the opening of con- Emirates. — AFP MP Faisal A-Shaye said yesterday the panel 3,000 kilowatts - 5 fils per kilowatt; For victed of murder yesterday, raising to 81 the num- received a government draft law stipulat- consumption of between 3,000 - 6,000 - 8 ber of death sentences carried out in the ultra-con- ing increases to electricity charges. Shaye fils per kilowatt; For consumption servative kingdom this year. Dhafer and Hussein al- said the committee will meet on Sunday between 6,000-9,000 - 10 fils per kilowatt; Mutliq were found guilty of killing fellow Saudis to study the bill but expected that major For consumption above 9,000 - 15 fils per Azeb and Mahdi Al-Moamer in a dispute between changes will be made to the bill to reduce kilowatt; As for apartments (normally the two families, the interior ministry said. They the proposed increases to electricity and refers to expatriate), the new proposed were both executed in Najran, in the south, a min- water charges. The draft law, which was rates are as follow; For consumption of up istry statement carried by the official SPA news approved by the cabinet on Monday, stip- to 1,000 kilowatt - 5 fils per kilowatt; For agency said. Most people put to death in Saudi ulates to raise electricity charges on the consumption between 1,000-2,000 - 10 fils Arabia are beheaded with a sword. The executions basis of consumption by several folds. It per kilowatt; For consumption above 2,000 so far this year include 47 for “terrorism” carried out divides the proposed charges for expatri- kilowatt - 15 fils per kilowatt. The bill also in a single day on January 2. In 2015, Saudi Arabia ates and citizens. proposes smaller increases to water executed 153 people, most of them for drug traf- For private houses (normally inhabited charges. ficking or murder, according to an AFP count. by Kuwaitis), the bill proposes to raise cur- Continued on Page 13 NZ men charged over red-hot chilli assault Islamic State threat raises WELLINGTON: Two men who allegedly forced a stakes for US nuke summit teenager to eat red-hot bongo chillies have been DUBAI: An Emirati looks at classic cars displayed in downtown Dubai. Dubai, charged with assault in New Zealand. Police did not whose airport is the world’s busiest for international passengers, announced WASHINGTON: The specter of the efforts by the Islamic State (IS) group detail the alleged crimes but the victim, an 18-year-old yesterday it will introduce a tax on travelers to help finance expansion, as Gulf Islamic State group obtaining a “dirty to secure fissile material. Late last year, who cannot be named for legal reasons, recounted his governments grapple with plummeting revenues. — AFP bomb” will loom over a top-level Belgian police investigating the ordeal to Fairfax New Zealand earlier this month. He nuclear security summit hosted by November 13 Paris terror attacks claimed a group of men assaulted him in a basement President Barack Obama in Washington found 10 hours of video surveillance after an argument over a prank telephone call, punch- today and tomorrow. Obama wel- detailing the comings and goings of a ing him and forcing him to eat bongo chilli peppers. The comes several leaders from countries senior Belgian nuclear official. chillies, cultivated in Fiji, reportedly measure 100,000- as diverse as China and Nigeria, as well Belgian media have since reported 350,000 Scoville heat units, compared to 3,500-8,000 for as representatives from nearly 50 other that the brothers were linked to the a jalapeno. nations, for the summit aimed at ele- surveillance. The incident has only vating the problem of shaky safe- heightened existing concerns about IS Yemeni troops push guards from the desks of technocrats efforts to get nuclear material. “Having Qaeda back in Aden to the highest corridors of power. a portion of the discussion that is ADEN: Loyalist forces pushed Al-Qaeda out of parts The meeting comes just days after focused on counter-ISIL is a decision of Aden yesterday in a new drive against the 32 people were killed and 340 were that was made in January,” said Laura jihadists in Yemen’s second city where the interna- injured in bombings at Brussels air- Holgate, the National Security Council’s tionally recognized government is based, military port and the Belgian capital’s metro.