Kuwait's state-run Petrochemical Industries Co (PIC) said its planned petrochemical plant would cost about $5 billion, a PIC official said on Sunday.

The figure he gave is $2 billion higher than an estimate given last month in an oil ministry publication.   

The plant will produce over 1 million metric tonnes per year of ethylene and is expected to be operational by 2015, Yousef Al-Atiqi, PIC deputy managing director for olefins, said at a press event.

The plant would be the firm's third olefins complex, Al-Atiqi said. - Reuters