Siemens Wins $240m Kuwait Petroleum Contract

Siemens announced that it has been awarded a KD68.2 million ($239.7 million) turnkey contract by Kuwait National Petroleum Co (KNPC) for two substations in Kuwait.

The high-voltage substations will provide power supply to two of KNPC’s biggest refineries located south of Kuwait city, a statement said.

The project is scheduled for completion in December 2015.

Under the contract, Siemens will supply and install a 132kV substation AHRF “C” at the Mina Al Ahmadi Refinery (MAA) and a 300/132kV substation MARF “W” at the Mina Abdulla Refinery (MAB), including high-voltage cable connections.

Wolfgang Braun, head of Siemens Power Transmission Middle East said: “This contract will provide the latest high-voltage substations to KNPC to help it mitigate losses and boost profitability by ensuring minimal downtime at its refineries.”

Adrian Wood, CEO of Siemens EES, the Kuwaiti unit of Siemens AG, added: “This project will both enhance and make sure a reliable power supply is available to help Kuwait meet its future market demand for transport fuels by 2020, as it seeks to increase processing capacity at its refineries.”

The deal comes as KNPC undertakes the Clean Fuels project, which will see a major upgrade and expansion of the MAA and MAB refineries to integrate the company’s refining system into one complex. The project mainly seeks to make fuel production in Kuwait more environmental-friendly.

Power demand in Kuwait has been soaring – according to estimates from Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity and Water, peak demand stood at 10.5GW in 2010 and is expected to increase at a rate of six to eight per cent per annum over the next few years.

The country is planning to nearly double its electricity generation capacity by 2017 to meet an anticipated peak demand of 25GW by 2025. Although most of this planned capacity will come from natural gas or oil, Kuwait is hoping to generate 10 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.