The story
Founded by Kuwait on Jan 27, 1980, in Kuwait City.1
In 1934 KPC received the first Kuwait Oil Concession Agreement after it was originally formed by the Gulf Oil Corporation and the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. In 1975 the state signed agreements with BP and Gulf and after its shares were progressively increased, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation was founded on 27 January 1980 as an umbrella company, integrating KOC, KNPC, KOTC and PIC and effectively placing them under government control. Between 1983 and 1987 KPC acquired most of Gulf Oil's refining operations in Western Europe. In 1992 KPC began to operate in Spain and in 1994 the company acquired BP's Luxembourg assets.
In May 2013 Nizar Al-Adsani was appointed chief executive officer of the corporation. In December 2018 Hashem Hashim was appointed as chief executive officer.
In January 2020, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation and QatarEnergy signed a 15-year sale and purchase agreement for the supply of up to 3 million tonnes of LNG to Kuwait annually. The agreement was signed in order to meet Kuwait's growing energy needs and the LNG delivery will begin from 2022. In March 2020, KPC announced that it and all of its subsidiaries were to cut capital and operational spending for the year since the COVID-19 pandemic caused a decline in oil supply and prices. CEO Hashem stated that the KPC was implementing ways to preserve public funds also beneficial to Kuwait, after the government reduced spending in the energy sector. The cancellation of the Al-Dabdaba solar plant came in July 2020, which would have provided 15 percent of the electrical energy needed in the oil sector.
In August 2020, KPC agreed to cut $2.3 billion from the spending budget of the oil sector for the 2020-2021 fiscal year. KPC agreed to a loan in October 2020, from the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) and Kuwait Finance House for $3.27 billion.
In December 2020, KPC signed a lease with Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry for 3.14 million barrels of oil to be stored at Kiire station starting in the first quarter of 2021.
As the coronavirus-driven oil price changes continued on, the KPC went into negotiations with Kuwait's General Reserve Fund (GRF) to set up a payment schedule for US$20 billion which will be carried out over the course of over 15 years. An additional $20 billion was also negotiated to be borrowed over the course of 5 years to cover KPC's deficits. A yearly payment of US$1.83 billion was agreed upon in April 2021, the KPC has the option to pay back more per year depending on where the company stands financially.
KPM received a compensation pay out in July 2021, amounting to US$14.7 billion, for losses in production and sales due to the 1990-91 Iraqi invasion. The United Nation panel approved over 1.5 million claims related to the government and international organisations involved in the invasion.
In March 2022, Nawaf Saud al-Sabah was appointed the new CEO. He joined the company in 1999 and held many positions over the years, including the head of KPC's Washington Office and CEO of KUFPEC, a subsidiary of KPC.
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In February 2024, the KPC initiated a mangrove planting project together with the SLB and the Kuwait Oil Company. The project is intended to be part of the KPC 2050 energy transformation strategy plan.
The KPC found an estimated 800 million barrels of medium-density oil as well as 600 billion in standard cubic feet of associated gas at the Al-Jlaiaa offshore field in January 2025.
With the ongoing regional conflict with Iran in 2026, KPC placed a precautionary oil output reduction on its refining and production on 7 March.
Only a few days later, the KPC put a temporary suspension of production at the Mina Abdullah and Mina Al-Ahmadi refineries due to drone attacks.
From Wikipedia’s article on Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4