A Kuwaiti company in charge of the joint oil-rich Neutral Zone with Saudi Arabia has asked the government to delay a key road project for 18 months to complete new oil pipeline protection plans, local reports said on Sunday.

The Kuwait Gulf Oil Company (KGOC) requested the Public Works Ministry to suspend the project that involves the construction of a road linking Wafra in the Zone in South Kuwait to Mina Abdullah until March 2021, the Arabic language daily Alanba said.

It quoted a KGOC source as saying: "The request to put off the project for one and a half year is intended to allow the company to complete revised plans for the protection of oil pipelines which carry crude oil from Wafra to Mina Abdullah."

The report said the Ministry was scheduled to finish the 82.2 million Kuwaiti dinars ($271 million) project in late 2019 but it was postponed to March 2021.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

© ZAWYA 2020