The state-owned Kuwait Oil Tanker Company (KOTC) is planning to increase its fleet of very large crude carriers (VLCCs) from the current eight to 28 over the next seven years.
It expects to see the fleet grow to 34 tankers by 2020 as part of its plans to become one of the world's leading oil transportation firms.
On Monday KOTC signed a letter of intent with South Korea's Daewoo Engineering and Construction to build four VLCCs for $700 million (Dh2.57 billion). The final contract will be signed on August 21 and the tankers are scheduled to be delivered at the end of 2011 as part of a fleet renewal plan.
Next month the company is planning to announce the tender to build two tankers for petroleum products, with the cost expected to be in the range of $180m to $200m.
KOTC wants to build another nine tankers by next year as the third stage of the fleet renewal programme.
The firm has already taken delivery of nine tankers and a service ship that were built in South Korea, Singapore and Bahrain. The additional ships complement the world's seventh largest oil exporter's strategy to boost output to four million barrels per day by 2020.
KOTC is mainly involved in the ownership and management of tankers engaged in the transport of crude oil, refined petroleum products and liquefied petroleum gas.
The company has a largely ageing fleet of eight VLCCs, four product carriers, six crude product carriers, four gas carriers, three bunker carriers and one supply carrier. It also operates a marine agency branch.