Kuwait Petroleum Corporation is looking to buy more ships and improve its supply chains, a company executive said on Tuesday.
"In KPC, we have our own fleet, which we are managing...We are in the market to acquire more ships," the state-owned energy major's managing director for international marketing, Shaikh Khaled Al-Sabah told the APPEC conference.
KPC is also looking at options such as pipelines through neighbouring countries and building storage to supply its crude and products to customers amid the US-Iran war, he said.
Last year, KPC shipped around 713,000 barrels per day of fuel products and 1.4 million bpd of crude, Kpler shiptracking data showed.
Shipping nowadays has become, "a very hot commodity and every shipping owner, I guess, is very happy," Al-Sabah said.
"Controlling your own fleet...your own operation will give you a lead over the others."
KPC is still supplying all of its clients as of now, but at lower volumes compared with pre-war levels, Al-Sabah said later on the sidelines of the conference.
KPC has three refining sites with a total capacity of 1.4 million bpd. It restarted all three crude units at its Al-Zour refining site recently following a power trip in mid-July.
(Reporting by Trixie Yap; Editing by Tom Hogue)
