Minister of Oil and Minister of Information and Chairman of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation Sheikh Ahmed Abdullah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah said Kuwait's oil sector is determined to spend KD 25 billion ($87 billion) on oil projects until 2030 in addition to annual maintenance and services works. He also said, "We are fully prepared to support small and medium entrepreneurs knowing fully well its importance for the local economy which purely depends on the export of oil." The projects include building a new oil refinery, he said. He was speaking at the '1st Kuwait Conference 2009 and Exhibition, Small and Medium Oil Industries' at the conference hall of the Kuwait's Chamber Commerce and Industry. The two-day event (Dec 13-Dec 14) is being organized by the Warah Global for Training and Consultancy and patronized by the minister.
The minister went on to say the conference will be a good idea to demonstrate some promising ideas and experiments which could help build some projects in different fields such as oil exploration, drilling, production, refining and marketing. He added Kuwait is taking necessary steps to diversify income from oil and encourage talented Kuwaiti youth and the private sector to take the initiative in new projects -- oil or any other field.
"We need to build a new and strong economy which can absorb the increasing workforce and divert to a working and productive society. Also I hope to develop the oil industries to be real competitors in the local, regional and international markets," he stressed.
Before concluding his speech, he welcomed the guests to their 'second home' and thanked the organizers and wished them success.
On the sidelines of the conference the minister inaugurated the oil exhibition in which several firms such as Petroconsult IPIP, Impuls, Gulf Cryo, Conco, Topsun, Zain, Kuwait Catalyst Company, Northern Alberta Institute Technology (NAIT) Canada, Redline well control inc, IBK and Walker's Holdings Canada, Kuwait Pipe Industries & Oil Services Co (KSC), Exile Drilling Canada, EQUATE, KPC and its subsidiaries, the Institution of Engineering (India) Kuwait Chapter and Redline Snubbing are taking part.
Over the two-days the conference has laid out an array of speakers who will share their knowledge with the visiting delegates and all those attending the conference on a variety of topic related to the small and medium oil industries.
Mark Bunger, Research Director, Lux Research, Boston, USA, gave a keynote speech on 'Nanotechnology for oil and gas: bringing innovations from the lab to the field'.
Other topics that were slated for discussion are 'The growth of basic petrochemicals in the regions and the future of the medium industries' by Anwar Saeed Ben Salamah, Deputy Chairman of PIC, Kuwait; 'Latest oil and gas related developments by Alexander Wustmann, founder and president of Alexander's Gas and Oil Connections.
Miss Sarah Akbar, CEO, Kuwait Energy, spoke on the Strategic role of private sector in developing oil and gas industry in Kuwait; Alexander Pavel, head of Projects Department, Petroconsult, Romania gave a brief presentation on Petroconsult and IPIP; Dr Alex Mojon, CPO, Oil Treatment International on 'Oil contamination solutions on land and sea and bio-degradable products.
This was followed by a question and answer session.
Professor Taher A. Al-Sahhaf, Dean, College of Engineering and Petroleum at Kuwait University gave a presentation on 'Preparing engineers for entrepreneurship and business; Omar Saleh, Director, Microsoft's Oil and Gas on 'Empowering excellence for E&P operations; Dr Leszek Ziemianski, Advisor, (Science and Technology) Innovation Enterprise 'IMPULS', Poland on 'Company's offer of chemical preparations used during outputting, transport and processing of crude oil'.'
Other topics include, keynote speech by Peter Wells, Director of Neftex Petroleum Consultants, England, on 'Key success factors in developing private oil sector and gas service sector enterprise'; Mercury menace in oil and gas industry: does existing technology mitigate industrial requirement?' by Dr Sharifah Bee Abd Hamid, Professor Department of Chemistry, University of Malaya, Malaysia; 'Role of petroleum geochemistry in exploration and oil field development for complex and green reservoir, by Mohammad Reza Kamali, Associate professor and director, Center for Exploration and Production Studies and Research.
Dr Mohammad Moukhtar Al-Lababidi, Director, Technical Affairs Department, OAPEC will shed light on oil and gas industries in the Gulf states; Eng Nasser Farhan Al-Anezi, Manager Olefins-SBU, PIC, Kuwait on PIC growth in petrochemicals: existing and future; Dr Mishaal Al-Samhan of KISR on medium industries in petrochemicals; Rodney Blackford, consultant, KOC on assuring success of a small oil company; Dr Reza P. Oskui, research scientist and member of Society of Petroleum Engineers (Kuwait branch) on Carbon dioxide capture from industrial emission sources and injection into depleted oil/gas reservoirs: a dual benefit for EOR and environment in the Middle East; Hamad Dakheel Alsebaie, manager corporate planning PIC, Kuwait on promoting petrochemicals derivatives in Kuwait and Milove Kothari, VP, sales and marketing, Topsun Energy Ltd, India, on solar energy applications for the oil fields.
Demand
Oil prices and demand are "good" under the current economic circumstances, Kuwait's ruler said on Sunday, adding that economic growth in Asia will drive future demand for crude.
"There is no doubt that the crisis has had an effect, but its effect was relatively limited and the decline in prices during this crisis was expected," Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah told state news agency KUNA.
Economic growth in East Asia and the Indian subcontinent will drive oil demand in the future, he added.
"We see that Opec members' cohesion in setting an output ceiling for oil and complying with it will be a safety valve for the Opec countries economies in general and the GCC in particular," he said.
Output
Kuwait's oil minister said Sunday Opec probably won't change its production levels when it meets next week.
Sheikh Ahmed Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah made the comments to state news agency KUNA, which paraphrased him as saying "it was unlikely the bloc would change output strategy" when it meets in Angola on Dec 22.
The 12-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which includes Kuwait, has not changed its output targets since it cut production at the end of last year to buoy collapsing oil prices. The bloc supplies roughly 35 percent of the world's crude.
The oil minister of Opec heavyweight Saudi Arabia said earlier this month he thought current global oil prices were "perfect."
Kuwait has an "alternative" investor for its joint venture China refinery with Sinopec if Royal Dutch Shell pulled out from the project, the country's oil minister said on Sunday.
"In return, we have another investor, there are alternatives," Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah said, adding that Kuwait has not received anything official from Shell that it has exited the planned joint venture.
Earlier this month, Shell said it had withdrawn from a joint venture with China's Sinopec, Kuwait Petroleum International, and Dow Chemical to build a refinery and petrochemical plant in China.
In September, a Kuwait oil executive said the Opec member was in talks with British firm BP as a potential partner in the $9 billion joint venture refinery.
© Arab Times 2009
