Supreme Petroleum Council agrees to study ‘restructuring’ of oil sector

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Merger of oil companies’

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 12: The Supreme Petroleum Council approved in its first meeting, which was presided over by His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah, a number of decisions related to the oil sector, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

According to informed sources, the budgets of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation and its subsidiaries were approved, as well as gave an initial approval of the study and proposal submitted by KPC on restructuring the oil sector. The council’s meeting, which was held on Monday evening, approved the operating budgets of KPC and its subsidiaries for the 2020/2021 fiscal year, at a value of 4.3 billion dinars, with expected profits for that period to be about 2.5 billion dinars.

The council agreed in principle to the proposal to restructure the oil sector, starting with KPC coordinating with a technical consultancy firm for the process of merging economic consultations on the subject and discussing them after a period of one and a half to two years. This is to express an opinion and finish the study after that period in order to take a final decision on the subject after evaluation and presentation to the board.

Regarding the strategy of the oil sector, the sources stated that the council agreed to update the revised strategy of KPC and its new subsidiaries for 2020/2040. The oil production of Kuwait, including the divided region, will be about 3 million barrels during 2020, reaching 3.1 million barrels per day by 2025, provided it increases production quantities gradually every year to 4 million barrels per day by 2040.

They revealed the council’s discussion of Kuwait’s plans for production in the divided region during that period. The new strategy will be used to raise the total quantities of Kuwait from the divided region to about 350,000 barrels per day of crude oil, provided the Al- Durra Gas Field is developed with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia such that Kuwait’s share will be up to 500 million cubic feet of gas per day.

Regarding the oil refining operations, the sources said that the council agreed to update the strategy for refining operations to be 1.6 million barrels with the actual operation of the environmental fuel projects and the Al-Zour refinery project. They stressed that oil sector officials discussed the ongoing modernization of some units in Al-Zour Refinery.

The sources affirmed that the council discussed before the initial approval of the proposal to restructure the oil sector as submitted by KPC in order to start and move forward in activating plans, strategies and studies for including oil companies to be specialized sectors under the umbrella of the institution.

They noted that the council agreed in principle to approve the preliminary study submitted to it by the institution regarding the merger of oil companies.

Meanwhile, acting CEO of Gulf Oil Company Abdullah Al-Sumaiti has issued a circular to declare the appointment of two new directors in Al-Wafra joint area starting from Sunday, February 9, reports Al-Anba daily.

According to the circular, Qaed Bouaraki has been appointed as the Director of Competency Development Department, Ibrahim Al-Huli as the Director of Supply Department. A director of the Operations Department will be appointed in the near future.

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