Kuwait draws up plan to avert strike effect

Kuwait City: Kuwait National Petroleum Co (KNPC), the state-run refiner, has an "alternative plan" to ensure the country's three oil refineries and exports suffer minimum impact by a workers' strike planned for October 19.

"We have an alternative plan, or scenario, to ensure the refineries will have the minimum impact," KNPC Deputy Chairman Asaad Al Sa'ad said on Thursday in a phone interview.

"The impact will depend on how the strike will happen, if it is total or minimum. There will never be a total shutdown," he said.

KNPC workers have threatened to strike from 7am local time on Sunday. KNPC Labour Syndicate said on Wednesday negotiations failed to reach an agreement and that a strike would cause a total shutdown of the refineries and disrupt exports. Workers are demanding equal pay and rights as colleagues in the same jobs in other companies under the umbrella of Kuwait Petroleum Corp.

Minimal impact

"Refineries and exports will be affected, but we want to minimise the impact," said Al Sa'ad. Kuwait's three refineries, Mina Abdullah, Mina Al Ahmadi and Shuaiba, have a total capacity of 936,000 barrels a day. Kuwait is the fourth- largest oil producer in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec).

More time is needed to study the workers' demands and an agreement could be reached before Sunday, Al Sa'ad said. "We've had other similar experiences which have been resolved in time."

Refineries recovering

Kuwait's three oil refineries are running at 63 per cent of capacity, three days after a power failure halted operations.

"We're now producing 587,000 barrels" a day, compared with full capacity of 936,000 barrels a day, Kuwait National Petroleum Co (KNPC) spokesman Mohammad Al Ajmi said on Thursday.

"Shuaiba is running at full capacity and Mina Abdullah is almost at full capacity. Mina Al Ahmadi is a longer process than the other refineries."

Most conversion units are now operating, according to Al Ajmi. "If there is progress, we hope to reach full capacity in 36 to 38 hours," he said.

Kuwait halted output just before dawn on October 13 when an electricity outage caused by high humidity tripped power supply to the facilities. Exports weren't affected and there was no damage to the plants, which are located within 10 kilometres of each other in south Kuwait.

The Mina Abdullah refinery has a capacity of 270,000 barrels a day, while the Mina Al Ahmadi and Shuaiba plants have respective capacities of 466,000 and 200,000 barrels a day.