Kuwait Times

Published Date: May 10, 2009

HONG KONG: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and his accompanying delegation will head to China today on a three-day official visit.
Kuwait and China have witnessed dramatic development in energy cooperation following an agreement signed by the two governments in July 2004, when HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah last toured China in his capacity as then prime minister.

HH the Amir's upcoming visit to Beijing from May 10-13 is expected to further raise the overall energy cooperation level between the two countries.
Last month, state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) celebrated the 5th anniversary of the establishment of its sales office in the Chinese capital. Since 2005, with KPC Beijing office serving as a springboard for greater business in Asia's largest energy market, Kuwaiti crude oil exports have shown
steady growth. In March, the shipments jumped 43.0 percent from a year earlier to 747,800 tons, equivalent to around 177,000 barrels per day (bpd), accounting for 4.6 percent of China's total crude oil imports, according to government data.

KPC told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) late April that the world's seventh-largest oil exporter is selling at least 130,000-140,000 bpd of crude to China at any given time, leaping from 18,000 bpd in 2004. KPC also said it still sticks to a China-bound export target of 500,000 bpd by 2015.

In the field of joint energy project, Kuwait sealed MoU with China in December 2005 to construct the oil refinery and petrochemical complex in south China's Guangdong Province, in hopes of participating in the long-term development of hydrocarbon sector in the world's second-biggest oil consuming market. Estimated at $9 billion, the project would be the largest Sino-foreign joint venture in China if it goes onstream in 2013.

The envisaged plant in the provincial capital was expected to shore up Guangdong's rapidly growing economy, which expanded 10.1 percent in 2008.
Although further negotiations are still needed to finalize its exact location in the province with a population of over 100 million, during the visit to China late April by Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah, the two sides reaffirmed their commitment to realize the project on schedule.

Earlier this week, Kuwaiti Ambassador to China Faisal Al-Ghais told KUNA that the project also includes "a retail network," in addition to a refinery and petrochemicals plant.

Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI), which oversees KPC's international downstream marketing operations, has been in talks with China's biggest oil refiner Sinopec Corp. for the integrated complex. The planned refinery will be designed to process 100 percent Kuwaiti crude with a capacity of 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), and the ethylene cracker unit will have an annual production capacity of 1 million tons. - KUNA