(MENAFN- Arab Times) State-run Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC) appointed a new chief executive and suspended other top officials after the country paid $2.2 billion in damages to Dow Chemical Co over a scrapped plastics joint venture.
Nizar Mohammad Al-Asani replaced Farouk Zanki as CEO at the oil firm and the Cabinet approved the nomination of six board members, a statement on state news agency KUNA said. Newspaper al-Rai said that two of the board members were new.
The government also suspended officials at KPC unit Petrochemical Industries Co which pulled out of the $17.4 billion K-Dow petrochemical venture in December 2008, citing the deteriorating global economy. It did not give details.
The chief executive of KPC holds a seat on Kuwait's Supreme Petroleum Council, which sets oil policy. Kuwaiti newspapers reported on Sunday that other KPC members of the council had been replaced, without giving details.
K-Dow was a politically sensitive deal in major oil exporter Kuwait and came under scrutiny in parliament, where lawmakers often clash with the government, especially over large state investments.
In another development, MP Abdullah Al-Tamimi stressed the suspension of the top oil officials over the issue the Dow Chemical penalties should be carried out by the Prime Minister and not the Minister of Oil Hani Hussein who is also implicated in this issue.
In a press statement, Al-Tamimi said, "One cannot be an opponent and a judge at the same time, so the oil minister cannot carry out the process of suspending and dismissing top oil officials and referring them to the Public Prosecution in the Dow Chemical issue."
He said the Prime Minister must handle this issue directly "because we fear some people who are not favored by the minister would be fired, and so it is not logical for the minister to carry out the cleaning process."
He added, the minister should either offer his resignation or face the interpellation that awaits him on May 28, 2013.
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