(MENAFN- Arab Times) SEOUL Jan 22 (KUNA): State-run Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) signed a long term crude oil supply contract with SK Group on Thursday a deal that extends its strategic alliance with the South Korea-based conglomerate.
KPC International Marketing Managing Director Nasser Al-Mudhaf signed the contract in the ceremony on behalf of KPC while SK Group was represented by SK Trading International CEO Harry Kim. 'KPC plans are to extend the longstanding and historical relationship with SK by renewing a long term contract. Our strategic partnership with SK preserves and expands Kuwait's market share of oil supply within the oil industry in South Korea' Al-Mudhaf said in a statement to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) after the signing ceremony. 'The signing ceremony was held in parallel with KPC first customer's reception in South Korea which will be hosted by KPC on Friday to extend the appreciation to KPC's clients for the long-lasting and historical relationship ' he said. According to Al-Mudhaf as South Korea's second-biggest crude oil supplier Kuwait sold about 400000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude to the country in recent years. The ceremony was held in presence of Kuwaiti Ambassador to South Korea Jasem Al-Budaiwi and KPC's high level delegation included CEO Ali Al-Hajeri and International Marketing Deputy Managing Director Jamal Al-Loughani. 'Today we saw a long-term commitment by Kuwait as a provider of crude oil to South Korea which will benefit both sides in the long-run' Al-Budaiwi told KUNA stressing that the contract definitely helps both economies and nations. 'We look forward for further development of cooperation between KPC and SK Group even in other areas not only in crude oil but more cooperation in research investment and refinery' he added. For his part Kim told KUNA that the signing the contract is a fact that SK and KPC are strategic business partners as well as good friends. 'We need to take an advantage of the signing as a start to develop new and higher strategic alliance. We have built a very good relationship over many years and I would like to continue this good relations and business ties for wider areas' said Kim. KPC has shares in SK Innovation and SK CC according to Al-Hajeri. 'The meeting with Kim was a good chance to cement our relationship with SK. We discussed how to expand our relations and investment in SK Innovation and SK CC' said Al-Hajeri. Despite its lack of domestic energy resources South Korea is home to some of the largest and most advanced oil refineries in the world. As South Korea's largest refiner SK Innovation a family of SK Group operates two refineries with a combined capacity of around 1.2 million bpd. It holds about 35 percent of South Korea's petroleum product market excluding LPGs.
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