Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled – CEO of Kuwait Oil Tanker Company (KOTC) said that KOTC had transported 26 million metric tons of crude oil, petroleum products and liquefied petroleum gas to various ports around the world during the fiscal year 2014 / 2015.

In a special interview with Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled explained that KOTC had achieved unprecedented achievements during the fiscal year 2014/2015, highlighting that the Company’s tankers had sailed for more than 1.8 million nautical miles during 2014/2015 with high efficiency and with zero spills and navigational accidents.

Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled, who acts also as a spokesman for the oil sector, pointed out that KOTC was mainly concerned with the possession and management of the vessels fleet that transported Kuwait Oil Corporation (KOC)’s exports of crude oil, petroleum products and liquefied petroleum gas.

He added that the Company’s nature of activities included the running of the Marine Agency Branch that acted as the only agent for the oil tankers visiting Kuwait ports, and the Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) Filling Plant that filled up and distributed the liquefied petroleum gas cylinders to all the Country’s sectors for household, industrial, commercial, governmental usages, etc.

Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled indicated that the Company owned a fleet of 30 tankers: 12 Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC), 14 Medium Range Product Carriers (MR) of various sizes, and 4 very large LPG tankers. He added that the fleet’s overall capacity was 5,040 million MT (i.e., 36,394 million equivalent barrels), and the average fleet age was approximately 7 years.

He pointed out that the Company had won the Health & Safety Excellency Award by Lloyd's List as the best carrier in the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent for 2014.

He explained that the Company had concluded a shipbuilding agreement with the Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard (ASRY) located in the Kingdom of Bahrain, which was one of the most significant and largest leading companies in the field of ship repairing and maintenance and marine platforms the globe over.

With respect to the shipbuilding agreement, he said it covered the maintenance of 19 carriers over the period of three years at an annual cost of USD 33 million, and allowed KOTC to regularly maintain most of its fleet vessels in ASRY’s repair decks at the sisterly Kingdom of Bahrain. He emphasized that such an agreement constituted a tangible reduction in the fleet’s operating costs.

On the front of the Company’s precautionary measures against piracy, Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled explained that the Company had developed the vessels’ safety and security systems so that they could ward off the risks of piracy activities. He indicated that appropriate security protection had been provided for ships in the areas with high risk of piracy, which had led to avoiding any security accidents.

He indicated that the Company had developed and procured software for managing and improving the competencies of the vessels’ crew. Such software was approved by the international classification society, was designed as per the highest development standards in the field of marine industry, and had fulfilled the requirement of the international system of Tanker Officer Training Standard Tanker (TOTS).

He explained that, further to the above, they had complied also with the requirements of the Society of International Gas Tanker and Terminal Operators (SIGTTO). He pointed out that KOTC was second to none in the Middle East to use such software and the first of its kind in the world to include the entire crew, including the officers, engineers and sailors, with the captain for competencies evaluation and development.

Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled highlighted that the Company had received 9 new top-notch tankers: 4 Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC) with 320,000 MT capacity each, and 1 Long Range 2 Product Carrier (LR2) with up to 110,000 MT capacity which had been built by the South Korea based Daewoo Shipping & Marine Engineering; and 4 Medium Range Product Carriers (MR) with 50,000 MT capacity each, which had been built by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (HHI). He added that by receiving such tankers, the third and last stage of fleet development was accomplished.

With respect to the Marine Agency Branch, he said that the branch had provided various services to the ships that had visited the Kuwait ports, indicating that the branch had received around 135 oil carriers per month, with more than 1600 carriers as a total number of ships received as at the end of the fiscal year. He added that the Marine Agency Branch’s land had been allocated and received.

As for the old Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) Filling Plant at Shuaiba, he said that they had supplied the market’s needs of LPG during the fiscal year 2014 / 2015, distributing around 13.7 million cylinders of LPG to the sectors of the Country.

He added that as part of KOTC’s strategic plan, the filling and distribution systems of Shuaiba’s Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) Filling Plant were being developed to cope with the latest technologies in the liquefied petroleum gas industry around the world.

He explained that the Company had succeeded in distributing the new lightweight gas cylinders to the local market following the measures to unify the insurance rates for all cylinders types. He considered that achievement as a major step for better liquefied gas supply service, achieving the highest standards of quality and safety for consumers.

He pointed out that the new gas cylinders were made of high quality materials, recyclable, environment-friendly, fanciful, easy to handle and lightweight, and added that KOTC was the first company in the Middle East to start using the light metal gas cylinders.

As regards to the liquefied petroleum gas filling plant at Umm Al Aish, he explained that KOTC had commissioned the new gas filling plant of Um Al-Aish, North of Kuwait, in March 2015, adding that the project had been established on a plot of 150 thousand square meter and at cost of KD 54 million.

He emphasized that such an event was in line with the strategic plan of both the KOTC and the KOC. He pointed out that the Company had, at the end of 2010, concluded a contract with Hanwha (Korea) Co. Ltd in order to design and establish a liquefied petroleum gas filling plant at Umm Al Aish. The new plant aimed at providing a strategic alternative to the Shuaiba plant and to increasing the production and storing capacity of the liquefied petroleum gas in order to cover the local market’s needs arising from the steady increase in the population of the State of Kuwait.

He added that the production capacity of the plant was 15 million gas cylinders per year, i.e., 160% of the production capacity of the Shuaiba plant, with maximum production capacity of 20 million gas cylinders per year.

He pointed out that Umm Al Aish plant would cater for the needs of the north area of the State of Kuwait as well as the new cities that were being stablished as an urban expansion in the north part of Kuwait as per the housing plan of the Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW), which included Boubyan Port and the Liberation City.

Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled highlighted that after the commissioning of the new plant, the total production capacity of both plant had become enough to cover the market’s needs until 2030. He added that the Country’s strategic reserve of the liquefied petroleum gas had doubled to cater for the needs of consumers for 50 days. He indicated that the Umm Al Aish plant covered 42% of the local market’s needs, which was in line with the relevant plan.

With regard to the labor force, Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled explained that the Company had succeeded in providing the new Umm Al Aish plant with the required labor force through the internal labor force, which had led not to recruit new 72 employees for Umm Al Aish plant with cost of KD 3832000.

Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled highlighted that the Company was keen to protect the environment, and that was why the Company had signed a mutual cooperation agreement with the PRES-VAC Engineering Company, a leading Danish company in the area of environment protection. The agreement aimed to develop the environment protection systems, conduct the required studies, and provide the needed equipment to decrease the gas emissions emitting from the oil containers. He added that the Danish Government supported the project.

Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled indicated that the Company had maintained its Green Award, provided by the Green Award Foundation, for the protection of environment. He added that such award allowed KOTC tankers to get many facilities at world major seaports visited by the KOTC fleet of vessels.

He highlighted that KOTC had succeeded also in renewing all fleet ISO 9001, 14001 and 18001 certificates.

He emphasized that the Company played a great humanitarian role, pointing out that the KOTC owned Al Salmi tanker had conducted the largest rescue operation in the world, as they had rescued 536 refugees from the international water and had provided them with the accommodation, food and required medical care as some of them were in critical condition.

He added that rescued refugees had been transported safely to an Italian port, and indicated that local and international media had praised the State of Kuwait and the KOTC for such humanitarian action.

Finally, Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled emphasized that KOTC continued abiding by its strategic vision that aimed to provide world class services by proudly recognizable experienced and ambitious Kuwaiti cadres.