KUWAIT: Kuwait National Petroleum Co will shut its Shuaiba refinery permanently by April 2017, before its clean fuels project starts operating by mid-2018, its spokesman said at a news conference yesterday. The clean fuels project is an upgrade and expansion of the country's two largest existing refineries, with a focus on producing higher-value products such as diesel and kerosene for export.

Work on the clean fuels project is 36.7 percent complete, and it is expected to be finished by mid-2018, the spokesman said. Last year, state news agency KUNA quoted KNPC's deputy chief executive Mutlaq Al-Azmi as saying it planned to shut the Shuaiba refinery by the end of 2017. The company plans to convert the Shuaiba facility into storage reservoirs, Azmi said.