KFH: $23.2bn for infrastructure, construction projects in 2014

The total cost of Infrastructure and construction projects, to be signed in 2014, will reach USD 23.2 billion, a report by KFH-Research said here Tuesday. Oil treatment will cost USD 9.3 billion, and oil production will cost USD 8. 4 billion, said the KFH-Research, adding that projects in the fields of housing, health, transportation, and education are expected to be executed. The report also touched on government and private sector cooperation and said that \"If the government is successful in pushing ahead with public-private partnership schemes, Kuwait\'s projects market could be one of the region\'s most lucrative in 2013.\" By the beginning of March, some USD 2.96 billion-worth of contracts had already been signed. Further deals could be tendered soon as part of the PTB\'s USD 28 billion public-private-partnership (PPP) programme. Kuwait is today the region\'s fourth-largest projects market, after Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar. Since 2005, the country\'s projects market has averaged just over USD 7.2 billion in contract awards a year. Its most productive recent year for awards came in 2010, when more than USD 14.3 billion of contracts was signed, although this is still less than 10 percent of the total GCC projects market. Moving forward, Kuwait projects market is expected to grow stronger in 2014, although it could face political obstacles on the way. As much as USD 13. 7 billion worth of contracts are scheduled to be signed in the 1Q 2014, followed by another USD 9.5 billion before the end of the year, taking the total to USD 23.2 billion. Oil processing will form the bulk of the awards at USD 9.3 billion followed closely by upstream production with USD 8.4 billion. Pipelines add another USD 5 billion. The processing contracts form the backbone of two of Kuwait\'s most important and ambitious schemes, the Clean Fuels Project and New Refinery Project, both in the downstream sector and with budgets in excess of USD 15 billion each.