The debate promotes greater understanding of engineering and the role it plays in Kuwait Modernization

Kuwait - 20 December, 2010: Kuwait Shell underlined the importance of engineering to the healthy future of Kuwait's Energy industry when a successful engineering debate wrapped up earlier this month at the College of Engineering and Petroleum at Kuwait University.

The debate was organized jointly with American Institute for Chemical Engineers and titled 'What is the most important engineering major for Kuwait?' that featured seven major engineering disciplines: mechanical, electrical, chemical, industrial, civil, computer and petroleum engineers. During the session, faculty students from each discipline sought to convince an independent panel of judges that their engineering discipline was the most important one for Kuwait future.

The winner, Mehdi Karam, who in the judges' opinion had presented the most persuasive arguments in favor of Civil engineering, received an I-pad from Shell at the end of the debate.

Mr. Ahmed Mouti, Kuwait Shell's Chairman, said: "As part of one of the world's leading energy companies, we rely heavily on skilful engineers. So we are honored to work with Kuwait University to promote the relevance of engineering in today's society and hone the communications and presentation skills of the next generation of engineering professionals.

"The aim of this debate was to encourage greater understanding of the different engineering majors, as well as the breadth of opportunity that exists for future careers, and I fully believe that this objective was achieved for everyone involved."

Dr. Khaled Mehdi, College of Engineering at Kuwait University, said: "The engineering debate has been a showcase for engineering and for the university, and from that perspective everyone is a winner. 

"The concept behind this debate was initiated by one of the engineering societies to encourage students to interact with each other outside their daily school activities.   It also served as an opportunity to promote their communication and presentation skills while providing background research for Kuwait's future goals.  I hope this is an event which will be repeated in the future and provide a real platform for encouraging greater understanding of engineering. "

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About Shell in Kuwait:
For over six decades, Shell has been working in partnership with Kuwait to bring its crude oil to international markets. From those early days our business in Kuwait developed to include exploration, oil trading, lubricants, and technical services and chemicals sales.

Shell employees in Kuwait are based at Kuwait Shell Limited (KSL) and Shell Kuwait Exploration and Production (SKEP). Through the Shell network, all local staff has access to Shell's global expertise.

Shell Lubricants' distributor, Al-Hafez Trading, supplies the local lubricants market and has more than 15% of the market share. In Kuwait's refineries much has been achieved over the past few years by Shell Global Solutions, in partnership with Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC).

Shell has a number of international joint ventures with Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC) and, in 2005, extended our collaboration with Kuwait through an MOU with Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) to develop projects in global markets.

In 2009, Shell made its first liquefied natural gas delivery to the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) floating terminal to help meet peak summer demand.

Recently, Shell and Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) signed an agreement for developing the Jurassic Gas fields. Under the agreement, Shell will deploy a number of technical experts to Kuwait through SKEP to support KOC in managing the ongoing development of the Jurassic Gas fields.

For further information, visit www.shell.com/kuwait

© Press Release 2010