KEC raises paid-up capital to KD50 mln
KUWAIT CITY: Global Investment House (Global) announced the signing of an agreement to manage the capital increase of Kuwait Energy Company KSCC (KEC), a recently formed private oil and gas company focused on the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia regions. Omar M. El-Quqa, Executive Vice President at Global, and. Dr Abdulmohsen Al-Medej - Chairman of KEC signed the agreement yesterday at Global's headquarters. Attending the ceremony were Mrs. Sara Akbar - KEC Chief Executive Officer, Dr Abdul Samee Bahbahani- KEC Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Husain Kothari - Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Feras AlAmeeri.
Aggressive acquisition
El-Quqa said that KEC is increasing its paid-up capital from KD1 million to KD50 million, and should get listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) after completing 3 years period from incorporation and satisfying KSE requirements. The company will invest up to US$300 million in its acquisition and exploration program with the aim of obtaining an internal rate of return of up to 20% on capital invested. "KEC will achieve its goal by an aggressive acquisition program and by leveraging the management's established network and value-added expertise. Its focus is to profit from economically and technically sound oil and gas properties through Joint Ventures with selected successful partners", El-Quqa elaborated.
KEC was established in August 2005 and it envisions of becoming the pre-eminent Middle East-based independent oil and gas company, and to achieve production of 50,000 BOE/day with net reserves of 300 million BOE by 2010. The company is being led by Mrs. Sarah Akbar as the CEO, who is a well known figure in the oil and gas industry in Kuwait and internationally. She is a petroleum engineer with 25 years of experience in upstream operations. Previously Mrs. Akbar was the Manager of new business development at KUFPEC (Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co.).
Well recognised
She is complemented by other well-recognized specialists in the industry including Dr Abdul Samee Bahbahani as the Chief Operating Officer. Dr Bahbahani has a PHD in petroleum geology with 29 years experience in subsurface evaluation, basin analysis and exploration geology. KEC will focus its operations in the Middle East initially and in Central Asia. The company has performed an extensive analysis of available potential opportunities in some countries in the region combined with an understanding of the business environment and knowledge of the respective petroleum and fiscal systems.
Stages of progress
The focus countries identified by KEC include Egypt, Syria, Oman, Yemen, Iran, Iraq and Kazakhstan. KEC is undergoing discussions with various organizations, corporations and Government authorities for acquiring Oil and Gas assets. These discussions are at various stages of progress, with at least four projects, for which in-principle agreement has been reached with the counterparties. The total investment in all these put together is expected to be in the range of KD70mn to KD75mn. In addition to these, KEC is pursuing more acquisition targets out of which investment opportunities of KD100mn are expected to materialize over next 2-3 years.
© Arab Times 2006
