Kuwait Petro plans to set mega shop

State-run Gulf co in talks with Reliance, IOC for partnership

Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, a state-run company, is planning to set up a mega refinery-cum-petroleum complex in India. The company is in talks with Reliance Industries (RIL) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for a joint venture which will execute the project.

"We have met RIL officials and will be meeting IOC later today. We intend to finalise a partner as soon as possible. We are looking for large-scale refinery and integrated petrochemical joint venture. We are very serious about it," Saad A Al-Shuwaib, chief executive officer, Kuwait Petroleum, told reporters.

The capacity of the refinery is tipped at 150,000-400,000 barrels a day, while the petrochemical plant would have a capacity of 800,000 to million tonnes a year.

"We are looking something in India either with Reliance Industries or anyone else who comes first with the best opportunity," he said.

He, however, said the company is not looking at buying a stake in Reliance's existing refineries.

"It could be a greenfield project or a joint acquisition," said Al-Shuwaib. Kuwait Petroleum is open to the idea of supplying crude oil for the proposed refinery and petrochemical project.

"We would like to supply it with Kuwaiti oil. That is the main investment target for us."

Kuwait Petroleum currently exports around 250,000 barrels a day of crude to India yearly.

The company is looking at the most two partners for the joint venture (JV). "The JV could also look at projects outside India in the future," Al-Shuwaib said.

Al-Shuwaib said the recent spurt in global crude oil prices was mainly due to geopolitical issues and not due to mismatch in supply and demand.

"We see prices (of oil) going up and down. We don't see any problem with supply and demand. Only we see geopolitical things having a bearing. We have hurricanes and geopolitical things, oil prices go up or down depending on the situation," he said.

Kuwait is the third largest oil producer in the nine-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec).

Al-Shuwaid said Opec's decision not to raise crude oil output yesterday would not impact global prices.

"We didn't really see a big change after the meeting. Things were normal. Prices haven't deviated much," he said.

Benchmark January oil futures ended at $87.49 (Rs 3,453.7) a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday, down 83 cents.

Separately, another Kuwait Petroleum official said the company is yet to give up its plan to partner Indian Oil Corp for the latter's 15 million tonne refinery-cum-petrochemical complex in Paradip, Orissa.

"IOC is still offering us the changes they have made in the configuration of the project. We are waiting to see what configuration they are planning," said Abdullatif A Al-Houti, managing director, international marketing, Kuwait Petroleum.

The Kuwait Petroleum delegation also met Petroleum Minister Murli Deora.

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OIL'S WELL

Kuwait Petroleum may form a joint venture with two partners for the refinery-cum-integrated petrochemical complex

The state-run company, which exports 250,000 barrels a day of crude to India, may tap oil resources from Kuwait to feed the project

The joint venture may also look at projects outside India in the future

Kuwait Petroleum may still partner IOC for a brownfield 15 million tonne complex in Paradip, Orissa