Kuwait is looking to reduce its portion of the cost of a planned petrochemical joint venture with Dow Chemical by as much as $2 billion, a Kuwaiti oil official said on Monday.

'Kuwait is looking to pay about $7.5 billion for the JV,' said the official, who declined to be identified.

Under a previous arrangement, Petrochemical Industries Co, part of Kuwait Petroleum Corp, would pay Dow $9.5 billion in exchange for the U.S. firm transferring five of its units to the joint venture, equally owned by the two partners.

The oil official added that the total value of the deal would decline to $15 billion from an originally planned $19 billion.

A KPC official declined to comment on the talks, saying only a deal was possible this week.

Dow and KPC said last week that they were still in talks on the deal after Kuwait's state news agency, Kuna, quoted KPC chief executive Saad al-Shuwaib as saying the agreement was under review due to the global financial crisis.-Reuters