Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) have signed a 20-year contract with the Petroleum Coke Industries (PCI) for the manufacture of calciner petroleum coke.

Chief executive officer Hani Abdulaziz Hussein said the contract is considered as the first privatisation operation conducted by KPC within the oil sector.
He also cited the sodium chloride factory, the service station network and the lubricating oil factory. The later was entirely sold to the private sector, he said.
Wael Al Saqer, chairman of the board of directors of the Petroleum Coke Industries, said investments worth $150 million were attached to this project.
He said the project was also important as a landmark in Kuwait's national reform efforts.
He stressed that the calciner petroleum coke, expected to be produced by the project, had already been "marketed and sold 20 years in advance".
He said the product was being used in the Arab Gulf region as well as in such places as South Africa, Japan, some South East Asian states as well as China and Europe.
Calciner petroleum coke is of vital importance to Kuwait's $40 million aluminium manufacturing project.