(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) News report by Nasser Al-Ajmi
MUSCAT, Feb 5 (KUNA) -- His Highness the Amir of the State of Kuwait, Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, is due to start a visit to the Sultanate of Oman on Tuesday for summit talks with Sultan Haitham bin Tareq and sponsoring inauguration of the mega venture, Al-Duqm refinery and petrochemical complex.
The scheduled official ceremony at the site symbolizes the substantial outcome of the two GCC countries' partnership, economic and strategic cooperation, spanning for three decades.
The mega project, corner stone of which had been placed by Kuwait and Oman, would set the stage of significant development of Al-Duqm region, forecast to turn into a key regional energy hub with feasible affiliate industries.
Occupying a 900-hectare plot of coastal land, the USD 8.5 billion complex is a joint venture for the Omani international energy integrated company (OQ) and Kuwait Petroleum International (Q8).
Its preliminary refining capacity is estimated at 230,000 barrels of (Kuwaiti) crude oil per day. The products include diesel, aviation fuel, naphtha and liquefied petroleum gas. Kuwait Petroleum Corporation will secure 65 percent of the refinery's resources of crude oil.
The Kuwait-Omani relations have developed substantially since three decades ago and the two countries have signed cooperation agreements at the political, economic, cultural, tourist and artistic levels.
Genuineness of these close and warm relations was visible in 1990, when Oman sided with Kuwait in the face of the flagrant Iraqi aggression. Upon orders by the late Sultan Qaboos bin Said, the sultanate hosted a large number of Kuwaiti citizens during the occupation.
In gratitude for the support, the late Amir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah visited the sultanate on September 18, 1991, and met Sultan Qaboos. On December 28, 2009, the late Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah decorated Sultan Qaboos with the Order of Mubarak the Great during the latter's visit to Kuwait and the sultan granted the Amir the Order of Oman.
The two countries, in 2003, formed a joint committee to tackle economic, commercial and tourist issues of common concern. It had held nine meetings, the latest of which convened in Muscat in March. The meeting was marked with five memoranda of understanding in diplomatic training, higher education, competition protection, prohibiting monopolization, environment protection and industrial exports.
Kuwait and Oman had worked out 17 accords between 1974 and 2017. Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development had executed 23 projects in Oman and Kuwait's investments in Oman Fund for Fixed Income reached some KD three million (USD 26.4 million), while volume of the trade exchanges amounted to KD 105 million (USD 346.5 million). (end)
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