With tenacious confidence and pride in KPC, Dr Homoud Al Rqobah, former minister of oil and chairman of KPC's board of directors, lauded KPC's role and pointed out how paramount and effective it is, in terms of spurring the national economy.

KPC's services, according to Al Rqobah, were in no way limited to Kuwait, having transcended the country's borders. KPC saved the world from a real environmental disaster by putting out the oil fires caused by the Iraqi invader shortly after the liberation of Kuwait.
In answer to the Corporation's role in enhancing the national economy, Dr Al Rqobah said: 'KPC plays a key role in marketing oil which is the backbone of the country's economy.
'Oil accounts for 95 per cent of our national income. Hence, the corporation's role is not only effective, but critical, in keeping the wheel of the Kuwaiti economy turning.'
In evaluating his term as chairman of the corporation, Dr Al Rqobah stated: 'I took charge of the corporation under very unusual circumstances. At the time the oil well fires were still raging and threatened reservoirs.
'The entire oil industry of Kuwait was at risk and KPC had to undertake an overwhelming job.
'All plans, directions and implementation were coordinated and controlled by KPC, in co-operation with the other companies within the oil sector.
'KPC saved the world from a huge environmental disaster.
'We completed the job in seven months, and this ensured that the damage to the reservoirs was kept to a minimum and hazards from toxic gases, particularly those resulting from the burning of such elements as Nickel and Penydene, which can cause kidney diseases and failure, particularly in young children, were eliminated.'
As to the corporation's future he said: 'Currently, world demand for oil is rising steadily, KPC is required to increase oil production and invest funds for money is like snow, if it stands still, it melts away.
'There's an abundance of money supply at the moment, especially after oil prices skyrocketed recently.
'I assert that KPC now has a double role: to handle oil production, increasing production on one hand, and investing the surplus funds, on the other.
'According to experts' forecasts for 2015 through 2020, there will be little oil in the world outside the GCC countries and Iraq, and oil production in the rest of the world will be negligible. It is common knowledge now that 67 per cent of the world's reserves of oil exist in the Gulf countries and Iraq. This is a really huge quantity. I guess that this percentage will be even higher by the time the wells of other producers go dry.
'I believe that the corporation should draw a clear strategy for it might be called upon to meet global demand which it can only do by increasing oil production.'
He said he expects that Kuwait's capacity will reach 4 million bpd in 2015 as a result of world demand.
'KPC also should turn toward expanding the exploitation of natural gas.
'Each extracted oil barrel contains around 500 cubic feet of gas. Consequently any increase in oil production, leads to an increase in gas production.
'A four-million oil barrel capacity will bring about two billion cubic feet of gas.
'We should consider a way to promote and extract this huge quantity because burning it would cause a tremendous amount of pollution This suggestion should be considered seriously in the light of the fact that our power generation stations are fuelled by crude oil, gas oil and gas and could instead be fed with the gas which is a by-product of the oil production process.'
Dr Al Rqobah expressed the hope that high technology, particularly oil extraction technology be imported to Kuwait. 'I should add that increasing the production has much to do with the use of a new technology, one that is owned by other companies. I hope as well for more development of our petrochemical industry. I hope that our petrochemical industry will enter new, profitable fields in the future.'
Dr Al Rqobah emphasised that he would do anything in his power towards enhancing production efficiency if he was once again put in charge of the oil sector.
He said: 'As is commonly known, we extract 50 per cent out of oil from our wells and leave the rest as reserves.
'When we say that Kuwait's reserve is 100 million barrels, it means the quantity we can extract with the technology we posses is only 50 million barrel.
'We've got to increase our production capacity by up to 10 per cent, or at least five if possible, because it would mean 20 billion barrels, or $800 billion.'
'I hope that we will be able to develop oil reservoirs in order to increase their productivity. Developing the northern fields is very critical. I was the first to propose this idea, which is based on setting a strategy for our Northern borders and the production of larger quantities from the North fields with help from other countries.'