In this Global Platform video, Jamal Iesa Al-Loughani, DMD International Marketing, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), talks about Kuwait Export Crude and upcoming plans for the future. In response to growing demand, KPC will begin to export its new heavy crude material in 2020. Important developments for 2020 also include the new clean fuel project, which will introduce over 800,000 barrels per day of refined product, and the opening of a new refinery in Al Zour. Furthermore, a new onshore receiving terminal for liquefied natural gas is set to supply most of Kuwait’s gas requirements.
Kuwait is very eager to establish a good and profitable relationship with the whole world. That’s why, actually, we have seen some of the joint ventures now going on. Already on the ground is our refinery in Vietnam. We have a 200,000 barrels per day (bpd). Also, we have a joint venture with Duqm Refinery in Oman, and we have a number of petrochemical joint ventures through our affiliates, PIC, all over the world, in Canada, U.S., Korea and China. Kuwait is known for Kuwait Export Crude grade, known as KEC. This grade has been supplied in the market for the last 70 years. We started to export our second grade, called Kuwait Super Light Crude. We will export a new grade next year, in 2020, which will be our Kuwait heavy crude material. The whole market is waiting because the demand is very high for the heavy material.
A very important milestone in 2020 is the introduction of our new mega-project. Particularly the clean fuel project, where we will introduce 800,000 bpd of refined product. Also, we are going to start up our new refinery located at Al Zour. Kuwait is a net importer, and of course, coinciding with the introduction of our new onshore receiving terminal for liquefied natural gas, we have new contracts for 15 years, starting from 2020, to supply Kuwait with most of its requirements for gas. Still, the room is there for optimization. The terminal would give us a great flexibility because the terminal has a lot of capability.
We are also very lucky to be in the middle of an area with big producers of gas, like Qatar, and we are not far away from the trade route. We have supply over demand with our good customer base, good relation more on the medium-heavy crude. Especially with our type of crude, we should have no problem advancing in the market and protecting our market share. We are an oil producer, we are a refiner, and we think that this is something that will continue. The demand for hydrocarbons, we know that for example, clean energy will increase, electric cars will be introduced. However, we think that the growth of the world and the total demand is so substantial to accommodate with us being more competitive, more flexible and more customer oriented. This will always help us in being one of the most favourable business partners to achieve our vision.