(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) The International Diesel Service (IDS), an offshoot of Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI or Q8), on Tuesday opened a fuel station in Worgl town, Tyrol state, west Austria on a key European highway.
The opening ceremony gathered Kuwait Ambassador to Austria and Permanent Delegate to the UN Agencies in Vienna Sadeq Marafi, IDS marketing director and acting deputy CEO for strategic and financial affairs - Europe operations - Khaled Mubarak Al-Mushaileh and Q-8 regional representative Mohammad Ali, as well as a number of business leaders.
Speaking to KUNA following the ceremony, Marafi praised the selection of the location of the station on a strategic European highway that link Italy to Austria and Germany.
"The station, located near the entrance of a tunnel crossing the borders into Italy, will serve thousands of trucks in keeping with the IDS choices," he said.
"This event gains additional significance as it coincides with the preparations for the commemoration of the golden jubilee of the Kuwaiti-Austrian diplomatic ties," Ambassador Marafi said, voicing hope for closer economic ties between the two friendly countries.
The station is the fourth Q8-owned station in Austria besides 10 others in which Kuwait has considerable stakes, he added.
On his part, Al-Mushaileh expressed confidence that the new station will give momentum to the friendly ties between Kuwait and Austria and strengthen the Q8 presence in Europe.
"We have been awarded license to utilize this strategic location in Worgl after more than 10 years of studies and talks with the Austrian officials," he said, noting that Kuwait owns over 600 fuel stations in 24 European countries.
"For 30 years IDS is ranked as the third leading international fuel card provider in Europe. The company is a business dedicated to the fuelling needs of long haul and international road transport companies with over 600 strategically placed and competitively priced filling locations along all major road routes in Europe.
"All these fueling stations are positioned at key locations including border crossings and major transport and trading centers.
"The sites are set up following the highest security standards in the market and using contactless chip fuel card for secure payments," he added.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Ali, in charge of Q8 diesel station development in Europe, said Austria is a key transit country for commercial road transport in Europe.
"The main highway corridors of Austria are key to transporters driving from Northwest and Southwest Europe all the way to North East and South east side of Europe and vice versa. The attractiveness of Austria is its fuel price competitiveness compared to its neighboring countries," he pointed out.
The Worgl location lays exactly at the entry and exit of the famous ROLA railway used by truck drivers coming and and leaving to Italy. The location is also especially interesting to trucks seeking to avoid additional weight at the weigh bridge north of Worgl, Ali went on.
"The Worgl station has an objective of serving more than 100,000 trucks a year. This can be realized by the six generous sized lanes, 12 high-speed diesel nozzles and three outdoor payment terminals guarantee a fast and easy refueling without cues or waiting.
"With the opening of this new strategic site, a new logo has been implemented to bring focus and underline the fact that IDS is an integrated part of the worldwide Q8, he affirmed.
On behalf of Q8 management, he thanked Ambassador Marafi, the local authorities of the province, as well as the IDS team for their support to the successful operation of the station.
"This fueling station will be an added fueling point to the 13 existing IDS fueling points in Austria and will enhance the IDS selling proposition to its key international customers," he went on.
Q8 is continuously investing in the IDS international network to keep offering IDS customers the best truck dedicated filling stations at the strategic locations near Europe's traffic arteries and motorways. We can proudly say to have opened over 33 new and well located IDS sites in 2014.
Being a member of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), which is the 4th largest producer of oil in the world, IDS also benefits from their acquisitions.
The recent take-over of 800 sites from Shell Italy and the latest opening of the third largest site in the world: the former Texaco highway site in Capellen (LUX) are examples of the constant expansion of the European network and forte in the European market.
IDS is a great asset to KPC and will serve as a secured outlet for KPC diesel exports to Europe in accordance to the KPC long term strategy, he added.
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