Kuwait has commissioned a new natural gas plant that will raise its production capacity to more than two billion cubic feet a day, officials said.

The new liquefied petroleum gas (LNG) plant will be capable of processing 805 million cu ft (22.8 million cu m) of gas and 106,000 barrels of other gas products daily, Kuwait National Petroleum Company deputy chief executive Mutlaq Al Azemi was quoted as saying in the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

The plant, known as LPG Train-4, was constructed by Daelim, a South Korean firm, at a cost of $900m, officials said.

Al Azemi said Train-4 would be one of the Gulf's largest LPG plants and would also produce propane, butane and other products.

Kuwait already has three smaller plants with a total capacity of 1.5 billion cu ft, the majority of which is associated gas produced along with crude oil.

All of Kuwait's gas goes to petrochemical manufacturing and to fuel power plants, Al Azemi said.

Although it has plentiful domestic reserves, Kuwait has to import gas in summer to meet an increased demand from power stations.

Al Azemi added that Kuwait planned to increase production of natural gas in the near future, raising its daily output to four billion cu ft by 2030.

Kuwait has signed a technical service contract with petrochemical giant Shell to boost production from a number of gas fields in its northern region. – TradeArabia News Service