Le Koweit voudrait construire 4 tranches nukes d' au moins 1000 MW par tranche. La demande en electricité est en forte croissance (+7% par an) et 300000 barils/j de pétrole sont brulés dans les centrales thermique.
Le nuke est compétitif pour eux quand le pétrole est au dessus de 45-50 $ le baril.
Les industriels commencent à étre approchés.
Kuwait Plans to Build Four Nuclear Reactors as It Seeks Alternative to Oil
Sep 10, 2010 [
Kuwait, the fifth-biggest oil producer among OPEC members, plans to build four nuclear power reactors by 2022, joining a drive for atomic energy among Gulf countries seeking alternative sources of electricity.
Kuwait’s National Nuclear Energy Committee is considering options and will release a so-called roadmap for developing atomic power as early as January, Ahmad Bishara, secretary general of the body, said in an interview. The country may build four 1,000 megawatt reactors, he said.
Kuwait is in discussions with international bodies on “how nuclear energy fits in the energy mix of Kuwait for the next 20 years,” Bishara said in Tokyo yesterday. “Our initial analysis indicates that nuclear is viable as long as oil is above $45 to $50 a barrel.”
Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, and the United Arab Emirates are turning to atomic energy to save oil reserves for overseas sales. They need to allay U.S. concerns the technology may get diverted to weapons programs in a region that has experienced three major wars since the 1980s.
Kuwait ratified a protocol giving International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors access to future nuclear facilities to ease American concerns, said Tomoko Murakami, a nuclear analyst at the Institute of Energy Economics in Tokyo.
“Kuwait’s need to develop its power infrastructure is greater than other Arab countries because summer power shortages are severe,” Murakami said.
Electricity Demand
Demand for electricity in Kuwait is expected to grow as much as 7 percent annually to 25,000 megawatts by 2030, from 11,000 megawatts this year, Bishara said.
Kuwait burns 300,000 barrels a day of oil products, or 12 percent of its daily oil production, in thermal power plants to meet demand, Bishara said. The ratio is projected to increase to as much as 20 percent by 2025, he said.
Asia benchmark Dubai crude traded at $75.6 a barrel as of yesterday. At that price Kuwait can make about $22.7 million a day by exporting the oil it uses for power generation, according to Bloomberg calculations.
Kuwait’s crude oil output was estimated at 2.3 million barrels a day in August, less than Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and the U.A.E. among Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The country, located between Iraq and Saudi Arabia at the northern end of the Gulf, has a population of 3.3 million people, according to government figures for 2008. It had proven oil reserves of 101.5 billion barrels in December 2009 or 7.6 percent of the global total, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-1 ... ctors.html