Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Kuwait National Petroleum Co., the state-run refiner, has an ``alternative plan'' to ensure the country's three oil refineries and exports suffer minimum impact by a workers' strike planned for Oct. 19.

``We have an alternative plan, or scenario, to ensure the refineries will have the minimum impact,'' KNPC Deputy Chairman Asaad al-Saad said today in a phone interview. ``The impact will depend on how the strike will happen, if it is total or minimum. There will never be a total shutdown,'' he said.

KNPC workers have threatened to strike from 7 a.m. local time Sunday. KNPC Labor Syndicate said Wednesday negotiations failed to reach an agreement and that a strike would cause a total shut down of the refineries and disrupt exports. Workers are demanding equal pay and rights as colleagues in the same jobs in other companies under the umbrella of Kuwait Petroleum Corp.

``Refineries and exports will be affected, but we want to minimize the impact,'' said al-Saad. Kuwait's three refineries, Mina Abdullah, Mina Al-Ahmadi and Shuaiba, have a total capacity of 936,000 barrels a day. Kuwait is the fourth- largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

More time is needed to study the workers' demands and an agreement could be reached before Sunday, al-Saad said. ``We've had other similar experiences which have been resolved in time.''

Operations at the three refineries were halted on Oct. 13 when an electricity outage caused by high humidity tripped power supply to the facilities. Exports weren't affected and there was no damage to the plants, which are currently running at 63 percent of capacity. KNPC hopes to resume full capacity over the weekend, spokesman Mohammed al-Ajmi said by phone today.

To contact the reporter on this story: Fiona MacDonald in Kuwait FmacDonald4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 16, 2008 05:13 EDT