(Bloomberg) -- Kuwait’s Al-Zour refinery will be fully operational in a few days, the chief executive of Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Co.said Monday.

The start of the third section of the refinery was pushed back to the end of the summer, after a technical glitch forced a halt in April. Al-Zour, comprising three mini refineries, is one of the biggest oil-processing facilities coming online in the Middle East in recent years.

“We will witness the operation of the third refinery in the next few days, so it reaches maximum capacity of 615,000 barrels a day,” Waleed Al-Bader said at an event to unveil Kuwait Petroleum Corp’s. 2040 energy strategy and its transition to carbon neutrality by 2050 in the oil and gas sector.

The plant is set to be fully online a time when new Duqm refinery, a joint venture between Oman and Kuwait, and the expansion of Bahrain’s Sitra plant are also starting up. Higher capacity in the region is set to tighten crude supplies as the Middle East consumes more of its output to produce fuels like diesel for export.

Read more: Mideast Oil Gets Tighter as Refineries in Oman, Bahrain Expand

The other main takeaways from the event:

  • OPEC member Kuwait, which aims to reach production capacity of 4 million barrels a day by 2035, faces some challenges in diversifying its economy, Oil Minister Saad Al-Barrak said at the event.
  • “We realize the importance of oil as a strategic resource, but we are also working hard to move forward in the energy transition and invest in new technology,” Al-Barrak said.
  • Oil-rich Kuwait also aims to prepare integrated infrastructure for the Dorra offshore gas field, which it’s jointly developing with Saudi Arabia, the minister said. The field is to provide 1 billion cubic feet of gas, equally distributed between both countries.
  • The country also plans to increase gas production and once Al-Zour is fully operational, it will boost the nation’s refining capacity to about 1.5 million barrels a day.
  • Oil will remain dominant in the energy mix, and the transition from oil to renewables will be gradual, KPC’s chief executive Sheikh Nawaf Al-Sabah said.
  • KPC and its subsidiaries plan to invest $110 billion in energy transition capital projects, according to Bader Al-Attar, KPC’s managing director for planning and finance.
  • Duqm refinery will be fully commercial operational by end of this year, Shafi Al-Ajmi, KPI CEO, said. He said Duqm had produced diesel, jet fuel, naphtha and sulphur.

 

 

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