Kuwait is committed to resolving “outstanding issues” relating to financing its joint venture plan to build a $6.2bn refinery in Vietnam. Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) CEO Farouk Al-Zanki and PetroVietnam president and CEO Do Van Hau on Friday reaffirmed their commitments to the refining and petrochemical project. “Mr Do pledged his full support to secure Vietnamese government's guarantee for foreign exchanges for lenders of the project,” Al-Zanki told Kuwait News Agency after the talks. “The Kuwaiti government is committed to this project, which is also in line with KPC's strategy to expand downstream business,” he said, adding that KPC will supply 100 percent crude oil for the joint venture with Vietnam and Japan. The state-of-the-art refinery will have an annual oil processing capacity of 10 million tonnes, or 200,000 barrels per day (bpd), with a view to going online in 2015. “The contract for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) will be awarded once outstanding issues, including finance, are resolved,” Al-Zanki said.
