World
 
|
South Korea and Kuwait agree on crude oil storage plan
AFP
SEOUL
Petroleumworld.com 10 31 06
South Korea has reached an agreement with Kuwait to store two million barrels of Kuwaiti crude as part of efforts to increase its stockpile, the energy ministry said Tuesday.
The state-run Korea National Oil Corp and Kuwait Petroleum Corp were to sign the deal in Kuwait City later Tuesday, it said.
The South Korean firm will lease facilities to Kuwait and will have the primary right to purchase the crude in case of emergency, the ministry said.
South Korea already has similar deals with Norway, Algeria and China, but the contract with Kuwait is the first with a major Middle East oil producer, it said.
OPEC member Kuwait, which sits on 10 percent of global oil reserves, supplied South Korea with 93 million barrels of crude -- 11 percent of the country's oil demand -- last year.
The volume of crude stockpiled here jointly by South Korea and other countries would total 27 million barrels this year, the ministry said.
Asia's fourth largest economy, which imports all its energy needs, wants to expand this to 40 million barrels by 2010.
AFP 31 0809 GMT 10 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP All Rights Reserved.
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels