Kuwait purses oil merger plan

Kuwait is pushing ahead with plans to merge its state oil companies to reduce their number, create strong entities and cut costs, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The merger will start with the OPEC member's two main downstream companies Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) and the Kuwait Integrated Petrochemical Industries Company (KIPIC), the Arabic language daily Alseyassah said.
KIPIC's deputy financial manager Bandar Al-Qahtani met the company's employees on Sunday to discuss 'measures to protect their rights' after the merger, the paper said.
'He emphasised the need to preserve the rights of all staff members as per instructions by authorities…this includes the need to keep their contracts after the merger.'
In a report last month, the paper said the merger of the two companies would begin at the start of the 2025-2026 fiscal year, which begins on April 1.
It said mergers among the state oil entities came amid plans by Kuwait to expand oil and gas production capacity to 4 million barrels-per-day and 1.5 billion cubic-feet-per-day respectively. Kuwait has 8 main state-owned oil companies and controls nearly 101 billion barrels of recoverable crude deposits, the world's sixth largest.
In 2020 KPC appointed the US-based consultant Strategy& to carry out a study for restructuring the oil sector, which will remain managed by the Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC).
(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)
(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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