KUN0050 4 GEN 0216 KUWAIT /KUNA-LET7 ECO-KUWAIT-PETROLEUM-CONTRACT Twenty-year contract signed for manufacture of calcinated petroleum coke KUWAIT, May 1 (KUNA) -- The Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and the Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) on Sunday both signed a 20-year contract with the Petroleum Coke Industries (PCI) for the manufacture of calcinated petroleum coke. Calcinated petroleum coke is of vital importance to Kuwait's USD 40 million aluminum manufacturing sector. The contract, which was won by PCI and signed at the Marriott GW Hotel, is considered as the first privatization operation conducted by the Kuwait Petroleum Company within the oil sector. For a while now, the KOC and KNPC had been transferring some of their activities to the private sector, KOC's Chief Executive Officer Hani Hussein said in an address at the signing ceremony. He cited the sodium chloride factory, the service station network and the lubricating oil factory. The later was entirely sold to the private sector, he said. For his turn, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Petroleum Coke Industries, Wael Al-Saqer, said that investments worth USD 150 million were attached to this project. He added that the project was also important as landmark in Kuwait's national reform efforts. He stressed that the calcinated petroleum coke, expected to be produced by the project, had already been "marketed and sold 20 years in advance." He added that the product was being used in the Arab Gulf area as well as in such places as South Africa, Japan, some South East Asian states as well as China and Europe. Al-Saqer said that the Kuwaiti Industrial Bank had advanced some 60 percent of the value of the project while the remaining 40 percent were met by the Kuwaiti and foreign private institutions involved. He pointed out that the rates of investment were equal and involved the Petroleum Coke Industries (25 percent), the Al-Mal Kuwaiti Company (25 percent), the International Project Development Group (25 percent) and the Oxbow Carbon and Minerals Inc. (25 percent). He said that there was a heavy demand for calcinated petroleum coke in the local aluminum-producing sector. He added that the Kuwaiti petroleum coke sector came second in the Gulf area behind the Bahrain-based ALBA factory. He added that Kuwait was capable of producing some 350,000 tonnes of calcinated petroleum coke annually while the Bahrain sector produced some 450,000 tonnes. (end) kq.eh