KUWAIT CITY, Feb 9, (Agencies): State-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) plans to sell loss-making assets to cut costs as low oil prices pressure its finances, state news agency KUNA reported on Tuesday. Nizar Al-Adsani, chief executive of KPC, was quoted as saying the company had started efforts to sell its Europoort refinery in the Netherlands and had decided to shut a fertiliser plant of Kuwaiti unit Petrochemical Industries Co.

KPC’s affiliates, including Kuwait National Petroleum Co and Kuwait Oil Co, have already cut costs by 15-20 percent, he added. As part of the exercise, KPC plans to set up a company to manage the integration of its new refinery at Al-Zour and a petrochemical complex and liquefied natural gas facilities, Adsani said. Kuwait’s state budget for the next fiscal year is anticipated to sustain a deficit of 60 percent, around KD 12 billion ($40.02 billion), as per an estimated oil price of $25 a barrel, said Al- Adsani.

In a keynote speech during a forum on human resources held on Tuesday, Al-Adsani said the KPC, which secures roughly 92 percent of the State’s national income, should seek to boost income and find added-value for the barrel. The oil sector is coping with a package of governmental reforms under the current economic circumstances in the country, he added, pointing to an ad hoc committee tasked with launching initiatives purposed to cut spending and slim costs at the KPC.