International engineering and project management company AMEC expects to hire 300 people following a $528m (£328m) contract award by the Kuwait National Petroleum Company for a new oil refinery at Al Zour, Kuwait.

The company says that when completed in 2018 the multi-billion dollar refinery is expected to be the largest in the Middle East and will increase Kuwait’s refinery capacity by 615,000 barrels per day.

Dr Hisham Mahmoud, AMEC group president for growth regions, says: “This contract award supports our Vision 2015 strategy, which includes growing our presence in the Middle East’s oil & gas upstream, midstream and downstream sectors.

“It is also an example of our ability to leverage our global design, engineering and project management expertise to deliver complex projects for our customers anywhere in the world.” 

• For more on recruitment and hiring trends in the oil & gas industry, see the Sector Focus on p14 of the new edition of Recruiter, out next week.