By Nawab Khan
LUXEMBOURG, May 17 (KUNA) -- Kuwait Petroleum International (Q8) has scored major milestones in Europe's energy market by opening its first highway site and its largest station in the world in Luxembourg.
The service station is located in Capellen on the busy trans-European E25 motorway in Luxembourg very close to the border with Belgium and not far from the borders with Germany, France, and the Netherlands.
The opening ceremony held at the huge site last Thursday was attended by the CEO of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation Nizar Al-Adsani, Kuwait Petroleum International President Bakheet Al-Rashidi, Kuwait ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the EU, Dharar Abdul Razzak Razzooqi who was accompanied by Mohammad Khalid Al Huwailah and Sami Shammas from the embassy in Brussels.
In attendance at the ceremony were government officials from Luxembourg and stakeholders in the energy sector as well as representatives of the media.
Addressing the gathering, Al-Rashidi noted that the Capellen service station is also the third biggest motorway site in the world.
"This is a tremendous achievement, and will be the beginning, we hope, of more ties between Kuwait and Luxembourg," said the KPI president.
"Luxembourg may be a small country in size, but just like Kuwait, it stands tall on the international scene. Not only it is the second richest economy in the world, it is on one of the world's best performers in environmental protection. KPI will play its part in maintaining Luxembourg's culture of showing respect to the environment without making our products expensive to our consumers," he added.
Kuwait Petroleum Northwest Europe Managing Director, Azzam Al-Mutawa, explained that this is the first highway service station that is fully operated under Q8 in Luxembourg, and it is the first Q8 service station to show the renewed Q8 logo.
"The traffic stopping at the E25 Capellen site is somewhat different to our usual customer profile, and we therefore have every reason to believe our presence there will help us enhance our sales and market share in the BENELUX region, and further improve our position in the market," said Al-Mutawa.
Koen Vankelst, retail and IT director in Kuwait Petroleum North West Europe, informed the audience that there are 41 brand new fuel pumps at the site with 28 filling positions for truck, 11 for cars and 2 for LPG.
The site will serve over 100 million litres of fuel each year which means that there are four customers filling up the tanks of their vehicles every minute of the day.
Each pump makes about 25,000 transactions yearly and the sites expect to welcome over one million customers per year.
"The site itself is huge, spread over 7 hectares in a space equivalent to about 10 football fields," Vankelst pointed out.
The Q8 Capellen site will also 'ease the journey' for motorists who are looking a 24-hours a day full service petrol station that offers complete services including a big Delhaize Shop and Go Centre.
Highway petrol stations in Luxembourg are well-known stops for tourists, since filling up the tank in Luxembourg is generally more advantageous in price due to lower taxes than in other European countries. Kuwait Ambassador Dharar Abdul Razzak Razzooqi, expressed his happiness over the opening of biggest site of Q8 in the world.
"We are very proud that Kuwaitis or Kuwaiti companies themselves have reached the level where the are engaged in production line, shipping and delivering," he told (KUNA).
"We are very proud that the Kuwaitis have the know-how , the technology and the access to the markets outside. We think this is a major step in broadening our relationship in Europe, specially with Luxembourg and Benelux countries," he added.
On his part, CEO of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation Nizar Al-Adsani, told KUNA that " Europe remains KPI's home base, where we started in 1983 and never stopped growing. Our long term strategy focuses on growth in Europe, expanding our businesses, and being a reliable supplier of energy." "We believe in market stability and we believe in serving the interests of our customers in Europe," he stated and explained that "the price of oil, however, is not decided by either of us, as it is open to market volatility and political stability in both our regions," he said.
"It is also directly related to the global financial crisis, which some countries are recovering from while some countries in Europe are still struggling with it. Kuwait constantly monitors the health of global economies to reach an adequate and a fair equilibrium that is acceptable to both consumers and producers. This equillibrium should be supportive to global economic growth, while still maintaining profitability for us as oil producers. We believe that mutual economic growth is the balancing factor," Al Adsani said.
On his part, Bakheet Al-Rashidi told KUNA that "we are managing over 4,000 retail sites in several countries. As well we offer a whole range of other services such as Aviation and Lubricants. We continue to invest in Europe as this is of high strategic importance to our company. Q8 Capellen is one of our major achievements in this perspective." Secondly, he noted, "we are very proud to officially introduce our renewed logo in Capellen, Luxembourg. The Q8 Capellen site is the first site to carry our renewed corporate brand." "Our corporate brand - represented by our Q8 logo - was originally launched in 1986. The design itself reflects our shareholders' maritime heritage; the sails symbolize the Arab dhow while the colours yellow, red, and blue symbolise the desert, sun, and sea respectively," explained, Al Rashidi.
"We certainly will keep on expanding our network in Europe, since the European market is of utmost importance to our business. This expansion in our retail network will happen in all countries where we have a retail presence, Benelux, Italy, Denmark and Sweden," he said.
"In this perspective, Q8 Capellen is a true milestone and the largest site Q8 has ever had, the first highway in Luxembourg and the third largest site in the world. A great achievement we are all really proud of, and we are proud of our team in Europe for their work," he told KUNA.
Kuwait Petroleum Luxembourg is said to be one of the major players on the Luxembourg fuel market with over 40 service stations.
Apart from the sale of fuels, Kuwait Petroleum is also active on the market for the production, marketing and sale of Q8 lubricants, and also supplies fuels to professional end consumers and resellers.
Q8 also produces and sells "special products", including bitumen. Kuwait Petroleum Luxembourg owns one of the major depots in Luxembourg in Bertrange.
Last October, Q8 opened its first unmanned fuel station, Tango, at a highway near the Dutch town of Eemnes. Tango means 'tank and go' and they are unmanned which saves on costs. The Tango national network in the Netherlands was bought by Kuwait Petroleum ten years ago. (end) nk