KUWAIT is pressing ahead with several multi-billion-dollar projects while aiming to get delayed projects off the ground.

Deputy premier for economic development Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al Sabah, said a contract is expected to be awarded this month for a 25-km causeway, delayed for more than 10 years, to link Kuwait City with Subiya in the north and help kick-start the KD25.2 billion ($90 billion) Silk City project. Work is also progressing on the Bubiyan container harbour and a number of motorways linking Silk City and the harbour with the rest of Kuwait, under a four-year $104-billion plan, he said.

Meanwhile, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) head of strategic planning Shaima Al Ghuneim said KPC plans to spend $93 billion on projects over the next five years.

Major projects in the pipeline include a new refinery and upgrading two of three refineries to raise crude refining capacity from 930,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1.4 million bpd. The two projects are estimated to cost $30 billion, he said.

Among other developments, Hashem Al Tabtabai, the deputy head of the Partnerships Technical Bureau, which oversees private-public ventures, said the office has completed reviewing 16 mega projects, expected to be tendered or signed this year, including a $2.7-billion power and water desalination plant at Al Zour near the Saudi border, which is likely to be tendered this month, The plant is projected to produce 1,500 MW of electricity and 100 million gallons of desalinated water daily.