Citing unidentified oil sources, the Al-Jarida newspaper said the SPC approved the building of a new state-of-the-art refinery and the upgrading of two of three existing refineries to raise output and produce cleaner products.

The 615,000 barrel per day refinery project was scrapped by the government more than two years ago, months after it awarded contracts to five Japanese and South Korean companies.

MPs had opposed the plan complaining of a lack of transparency in the tendering process.

The two projects are projected to raise Kuwait's refining capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day from the current 930,000 bpd. When the two projects are complete, Kuwait plans to shut the third of its three existing refineries.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011