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Kuwait-China oil complex guarantees Kuwait crude oil marketing - experts

By Osama Jalal KUWAIT, Nov 6 (KUNA) -- Two Kuwaiti oil experts commended Kuwait Petroleum Corporation 's (KPC) partnership with China to build an oil complex which would house a refinery and a petrochemical factory, saying building oil projects abroad would gaurantee Kuwait's heavy crude oil marketing.

The strategic partnership with China should be applauded, the experts said in two intervies with KUNA, with the foundation stone for the oil complex scheduled to be laid in mid-November.

"One of the key objectives of this project is to market Kuwait's heavy and medium crude oil," Dr. Talal Al-Bathali said, as most of the oil importing countries did not have refineries that could deal with this type of crude oil.

China will also benefit from this partnership, he told KUNA, because it would be co-owner of the oil complex which would thus honor its fuel needs.

The yet-to-be-built refinery in the oil complex is projected to produce 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), in addition to other products manufactured by the petrochemical factory, added Al-Bathali.

He called for establishing more partnerships with oil consuming countries.

"China is a very important country because it consumes between 7-8 percent of global oil, and such projects will guarantee long-term marketing of Kuwait oil," he said.

Al-Bathali, talking about oil prices, said it was not strange anymore to talk about a three-US-dollar rise of an oil barrel in a single day or a USD-10 jump in a month. He attributed this increase to current political circumstances.

He said threats to wage a military action against Iran was causing panic in oil markets, but noted that prices would stabilize in future because of US economic recovery and resolution of the European debt crisis.

Khaled Boodai, another oil expert, said the Sino-Kuwait oil complex would benefit both countries and would create new markets for Kuwaiti crude oil.

Kuwait has enough petrochemical factories domestically, he told KUNA, and it should build others abroad because of the limited geographical size of the Arab Gulf country.

A petrochemical factory should be 20 kilometers away from residential areas to work in a safe environment, he explained, and Kuwait's limited space of land would not allow this to happen specially amidst the growing population.

On the oil prices, however, Boodai said they were largely stable namely after the European Union (EU) boosted the stability fund from 290 billion euros to a trillion euros.

Greece's decision to back down from its decision to hold a referendum on the EU's rescue package had positive impacts on the markets, he noted, coupled with writing off 50 percent of Athens' debts.

These solutions, he continued to say, were not ever lasting. "The solution will take time that might extend to 10 years as European officials have suggested." The EU countries are determined to end the debt crisis and supporting the euro, a matter that positively serve oil markets, he said.

OPEC believes that extraordinary high oil prices is not in the interest of its members, said Boodai, suggesting that oil prices would remain between the USD 90-110 per barrel until end of this year.