By Nawab Khan
(with photos) ROTTERDAM, Sept 12 (KUNA) -- Kuwait and the Netherlands have underined their desire to intensify and expand bilateral cooperation in the oil sector after a two-day visit by an 8-member delegation of board members of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) to the Netherlands.
Abdulhadi Al Awwad, KPC board member, told the Kuwait News Agency, (KUNA) that the purpose of their visit on Monday and Tuesday was to "acquaint ourselves with our operations in the Netherlands and Italy." "This refinery (Kuwait Petroleum Europoort) in Rotterdam is doing very well. We have visited some of the locations and we are happy with what we have seen," he noted.
Esmaiel Hussain, President of Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) told KUNA that the meetings with the Dutch port officials "went very well".
KPI is the international marketing and refining arm of KPC.
Hussain said the KPC board members "stressed their strong support for our investments in the Netherlandss as well as the desire to expand their cooperation with the port authority of Rotterdam." The KPC is planning an "Orange Project" to enhance and modernise its refinery in Rotterdam by investing in new facilities and a final decision will be taken on the project next year, he said.
"We have been in the Netherlands for the past thirty years through KPI and Q8 and we are planning to strengthen that, provided that investment is sustainable and it is profitable in the long term," added Hussain.
Abdul Wahab Al Wazzan, KPC board member, told KUNA that "investments in refineries especially here in Rotterdam has a lot of added value." The added value, he explained is training, to be in the international market, diversification of income for Kuwait, to learn the know how and new technology and give opportunity to young Kuwaitis to learn technology and transfer it to Kuwait.
"To be present at one of the largest ports in the world and manufacturing oil products is an asset for Kuwait. We think that continuing expansion in such area like Rotterdam port and expanding refineries I believe will enhance the profitability and give an advantage over others," he said.
Bas Hennissen, Commerical director port of Rotterdam port, told KUNA that the Orange project being considered by the KPC is a very important project for the Rotterdam port.
He noted that there are four major refineries in the Rotterdam port, including Shell, BP, Exxon and Kuwait Petroleum.
"So it is very important for us that KPC is also modernising the refinery," he said.
He noted that half of the goods carried through the Rotterdam port, the biggest in Europe , is related to oil and oil refining.
"This is a typical energy hub so we believe that in the future the activates around energy will be very important. We have large amount of major oil companies here and we believe they will stay," said Hennisen.
The KPC board on Monday also visited the KPC European office at the Hague and the KPI operation in the Belgian city of Antwerp.
On Tuesday afternoon they met the CEO of Port of Roterdam Hans Smits and other port officials and discussed ways to enhance cooperation including investments and tax incentives.
Kuwait's ambassador to the Netherlands, Hafeez Al Ajmi, hosted a dinner at his residence for the visiting KPC delegation on Tuesday night.
The KPC Delegation is to depart for Italy Wednesday.
Kuwait Petroleum International, known by its trademark Q8, refines and markets fuel, lubricants and other petroleum derivatives outside Kuwait. Its main activities are focused on Europe and the Far East.
Q8 operates two refineries in Europe: Europoort in the Netherlands and Milazzo in Sicily.
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