Structuring the oil sector will see acquisitions and mergers

With the approaching start of the procedures for structuring the oil sector in its first phase, after transfer, rotation, sorting and placement of leadership vacancies, sources revealed the structuring of the sector will vary between acquisition and total merger.

A local Arabic daily has learned with regard to the Kuwait Oil Company and the Kuwait Gulf Oil Company, there will be an acquisition of Gulf Oil by Kuwait Oil on the model of the Kuwait National Petroleum Company and the Kuwait Aviation Fuel Company (KAFCO) while the structure is between the National Petroleum Company and the Kuwaiti Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC) will be through a complete merger, given that “KIPIC is a purely Kuwaiti company and there are no legal obstacles to merging it.

The sources added that there are other acquisitions, including the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation represented in the global marketing sector for the Kuwait Oil Tanker Company, as for the Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC) and the International Petroleum Company, the matter is still under legal study, while “petroleum chemicals” will remain independent and its management for “Al-Zour Petrochemicals is under study.

The sources pointed out that the CEO of the KPC, Sheikh Nawaf Saud Al-Sabah, stressed the need to ensure that the rights of workers are not prejudiced and the commitment to the participation of workers’ representatives in the file of structuring the oil sector, explaining that the Saudis’ tendency to delay the start of the structuring procedures despite their legality is a message of reassurance to the workers, however there are strategic directions that everyone will eventually have to deal with and comply with.