KPC Al-Zanki concludes successful visit to Beijing for energy cooperation KPC Al-Zanki concludes successful visit to Beijing for energy cooperation By Miyoko Ishigami (With Photos) BEIJING, Jan 6 (KUNA) -- Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) Chief Executive Officer Farouk Al-Zanki late on Thursday concluded a fruitful visit to Beijing, which gave a strong impetus to the corporation's relationship with major Chinese oil companies.
It was Al-Zanki's first visit to China as CEO since assuming the post in 2010. During his stay, he held a series of talks, which were all arranged by the KPC Beijing office, with heads of ChinaOil, CNOOC, Sinopec and Zhenhua Oil.
Al-Zanki was accompanied by KPC International Marketing Managing Director Nasser Al-Mudhaf, Crude Oil Sales Manager Salah Al-Sabah, Beijing Chief Representative Mohammad Al Qallaf and Crude Oil Sales Team Leader Abdulqader Al-Furaih.
The talks between Al-Zanki and ChinaOil President Wang Lihua covered the latest developments in the energy market in both countries and future cooperation between KPC and ChinaOil, which is PetroChina's oil trading arm.
Al-Zanki told Wang that KPC attaches importance of developing relationship with China, expressing hope that sales of Kuwaiti crude to ChinaOil will further grow in the coming years. At the separate meeting between Al-Zanki and Wang Yilin, Chairman of China's largest offshore oil producer CNOOC, Wang offered technical service for Kuwait offshore oil fields, while seeking Kuwait's participation in a new exploration project in south China, nearby Yacheng gas field, in which Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC) had one block.
They also agreed to further discuss joint exploration projects in a third country. Moreover, Wang invited KPC to participate in CNOOC's Huizhou refinery project in Guangdong Province for their new expansion.
In his talks with Sinopec Chairman Fu Chengyu, the two sides agreed to continue constructive dialogue and decided to form a special KPC and Sinopec team that will look into new ways to create a win-win situation for their joint refinery and petrochemical project.
Also Sinopec shows interest to participate in Kuwait oil projects since they have 15 drilling towers operated in Kuwait. Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) President Esmaiel, Deputy Managing Director Mohammed Rashed Jasem and KPI China General Manager Meshari Al- Mahmoud also participated in this meeting.
Al-Zanki also met Liu Yijiang, Chairman of state-owned Zhenhua Oil. The rapidly-expading firm owns a refinery with Petrochemical complex, which is using KPC?? products for feedstock. According to KPC, Zhenhua is currently upgrading its refinery and keen to purchase more products from KPC and shows a great interest in Kuwait Export Crude (KEC).
Since the establishment of KPC Beijing Representative Office in 2005, Chinese refiners have significantly increased crude purchase from Kuwait.
Sales of Kuwaiti crude oil and petroleum products were just USD 400 million in 2004, but currently amount to exceeded USD 10 billion, driven by robust crude shipments.
The world's seventh-largest oil exporter supplied more than 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude to China in 2011, a 11-fold increase from 18,000 bpd in 2004, according to data from the Chinese government. The Beijing office has also successfully developed new outlets for KPC products in the world's largest energy consuming market, including naphtha, gas and sulfur, in addition to crude oil. Kuwait became China's biggest liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) supplier in November, with its shipments surging 64.4 percent year-on-year to 80,500 tons to control a quarter of China's total LPG imports. It was the first in 2011 that Kuwait has topped the list of LPG importers. (end) mk.rk KUNA 060908 Jan 12NNNN¬