THE president of the Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) Hussein Ismail says that KPI is committed to consolidate its presence in the European market.
“We are a strong player in Europe and our commitment will continue to strengthen that presence,” Ismail tells the Kuwait News Agency (Kuna) in an interview. Ismail was in Belgium to participate in the inaugural ceremony of a new tank farm of Kuwait Petroleum International Lubricants (KPIL) in the port city of Antwerp.
The 24 new storage tanks on the site of its lubricant blending plant on the banks of river Scheldt in Antwerp is the biggest plant that KPI has in Europe. “This is the biggest one we have. The reason we upgraded this tank area is to show our commitment to health, safety and environment,” he says.
The KPI chief notes that the old tank farm was deteriorating in quality,” so we decided to invest more than 20 million euros to upgrade the plant by building 24 new storage tanks, as well as upgrading water treatment facilities and loading terminal as well”.
He continues: “It shows our commitment to investment in Antwerp and in Belgium. It is very important and part of our strategy, KPC as well as KPI to maintain and strengthen many parts of our business in Europe. “We have been in Europe for more than 25 years now.
We have developed a business that is robust, that is high quality and we have invested in it over the last 25 years to make it stronger,” stresses Ismail. KPIL is a division of KPI, the international marketing and refinery division of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC). KPIL operates commercially under the brand name Q8 Oils.
In Belgium, the KPIL has over 300 petrol stations in addition to petrol stations in Luxembourg and the Netherlands as well. The KPIL headquarters is located in Antwerp. Asked about the future of oil prices, Ismail replied that “nobody can predict exactly, but we are talking about a band between $70 to 80 a barrel for the foreseeable future.”
“A band that would serve the consumers as well as producers to make investments to maintain our oil production,” he adds.
Giuliano Franzi, managing director of KPIL, tells Kuna that the new tank farm in Antwerp is for storing base oil. He explains that the crude oil goes to the refinery in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam and there the base oil is produced and shipped to Antwerp where the finished lubricants are produced which are used in cars and industries and in all sorts of engines.
The 24 new tanks have a storage capacity of 36 million litres and a production capacity of around 130 million litres per year. Franzi says the Antwerp plant” is the most important plant for lubricant production in Europe.
“From this plant we supply Denmark, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain. It is among the top fifteen plants in Europe,” he notes.
On his part Robert Voorhamme, deputy mayor of Antwerp, says: “We are living now in an economic crisis still. I think what the economy internationally wants is confidence and this kind of investment (brings) confidence in relations between Kuwait and Belgium.”
“This is the first state-of-the-art distribution centre for lubricant products,” he points out. “We are very happy (with) Kuwaiti investments and we are working very well together also. We are trying to integrate the Q8 plant in the development of the area,” adds Voorhamme.
