OPEC member Kuwait owes nearly 2.93 billion Kuwaiti dinars ($9.7 billion) to local and international banks in the form of loans they have provided over the past few years to fund its oil and gas projects, press reports said on Tuesday.

The loans, mostly long term, have been provided by banks and other financial institutions to the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and its affiliated companies, the Arabic language daily Alrai said, quoting KPC records.

KPC’s debt reached one of its highest levels of around KWD3.5 billion ($11.55 billion) at the end of the past fiscal year before the Company re-repaid part of it, it said.

“These loans are within KPC’s strategy to secure funds to finance its large projects which require massive funds that need finance from banks,” the paper said.

It noted such projects include the multi-billion-dollar clean fuel project, gas import facilities in the Southern Zour area and other oil and gas projects.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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