SINGAPORE: Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC) is in talks with Indonesia’s Pertamina to build an at least 200,000 barrels-per-day refinery in the Southeast Asian country as it aims to lock in buyers for its future oil supply, KPC’s international marketing head said.
A global supply glut following a gusher of shale oil from the US has redrawn crude trade flows, pushing excess Latin American and West African cargoes to Asia and forcing OPEC members to redraft their strategy to maintain their share of a market that has traditionally been their stronghold.
“At the end of the day we have the strategy for disbursal of our crude. We prefer to go into long-term contracts. When we say long term it is 10 years and above,” KPC’s Nabil M. Bourisly, said.
A stake in the planned refinery will give KPC a stable outlet for its crude for 20-25 years, he added.
Although details on the size and investment for the refinery are yet to be worked out, Bourisly said the plant will at least be of 200,000 (bpd) capacity in order to be an “economical project.”
The talks for a refinery in Indonesia come on the heels of an agreement between KPC and Pertamina to boost cooperation in the energy space.
Indonesia, which is set to rejoin the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in December after a seven-year break, wants to build complex refineries to meet local fuel demand and cut imports.
The KPC-Pertamina project will however “need at least 5 years” to be commissioned, Bourisly said. KPC is already building a 200,000-bpd refinery and petrochemical project in Vietnam, which will be commissioned in early 2017, he added.
KPC aims to raise its production to 4 million bpd by 2020 from the current 2.95 million bpd and is confident that there will be ample demand for its oil. It exports about 2-2.1 million bpd oil with 80 percent of that going to Asia, Bourisly said.
“Challenges are always there .. We as a supplier have to deal with these challenges regardless of who is in and who is out,” he said, when asked if Iranian exports will hit his firm’s market share.
Iran has cut the quarterly price for its flagship crude to a three-year low to lure Asian buyers and regain market share lost since US and Euro
KPC in talks to build refinery in Indonesia
KPC in talks to build refinery in Indonesia
Saudi Arabia set to attract $500bn in private investment, Al-Falih tells conference
RIYADH: Sustainability, technology, and financial models were among the core topics discussed by financial leaders during the first day of the Momentum 2025 Development Finance Conference in Riyadh.
The three-day event features more than 100 speakers and over 20 exhibitors, with the central theme revolving around how development financial institutions can propel economic growth.
Speaking during a panel titled “The Sustainable Investment Opportunity,” Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih elaborated on the significant investment progress made in the Kingdom.
“We estimate in the midterm of 2030 or maybe a couple of years more or so, about $1 trillion of infrastructure investment,” he said, adding: “We estimate, as a minimum, 40 percent of this infrastructure is going to be financed by the private sector, so we’re talking in the next few years $400 (billion) to $500 billion.”
The minister drew a correlation between the scale of investment needs and rising global energy demand, especially as artificial intelligence continues to evolve within data processing and digital infrastructure in global spheres.
“The world demand of energy is continuing to grow and is going to grow faster with the advent of the AI processing requirements (…) so our target of the electricity sector is 50 percent from renewables, and 50 percent from gas,” he added.
Al-Falih underscored the importance of AI as a key sector within Saudi Arabia’s development and investment strategy. He made note of the scale of capital expected to go into the sector in coming years, saying: “We have set a very aggressive, but we believe an achievable target, for AI, and we estimate in the short term about $30 billion immediately of investments.”
This emphasis on long-term investment and sustainability targets was echoed across panels at Momentum 2025, during which discussions on essential partnerships between public and private sectors were highlighted.
The shared ambition of translating the Kingdom’s goals into tangible outcomes was particularly essential within the banking sector, as it plays a central role in facilitating both projects and partnerships.
During the “Champions of Sectoral Transformation: Development Funds and Their Ecosystems” panel, Saudi National Bank CEO Tareq Al-Sadhan shed light on the importance of partnerships facilitated via financial institutions.
He explained how they help manage risk while supporting the Kingdom’s ambitions.
“We have different models that we are working on with development funds. We co-financed in certain projects where we see the risk is higher in terms of going alone as a bank to support a certain project,” the CEO said.
Al-Sadhan referred to the role of development funds as an enabler for banks to expand their participation and support for projects without assuming major risk.
“The role of the development fund definitely is to give more comfort to the banking sector to also extend the support … we don’t compete with each other; we always complement each other” he added.
