Interview with Farouk Al-Zanki, Chief Executive Officer of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation

I have a short question about corporate social responsibility. Kuwait is not only founded on petrol. There is also a strong community feeling. KPC has sponsored some of the leading projects in the region. Can you tell us your feelings about corporate social responsibility?

I believe corporate social responsibility is actually a part of KPC's strategic issues as a national company. We really pay so much attention to it and we would like to be perceived as not only an oil company. We really care about our environment, about society, and that is the reason why we allocate a budget to participate in any project that would really contribute to the social responsibility, such as Abdullah House. Something very important that we pride ourselves into is that we sponsored almost 30 students every year to be sent abroad to pursue a degree in engineering, for instance. Some of them are the sons of the employees, while the rest of the positions are open to the public.

Of course, the environment is one of our priorities. We really do care about keeping Kuwait clean, especially the machines. We have many projects, some of which may take a long time to achieve, but on a daily basis, we make sure to limit our emissions. I would also like to announce that gas flaring has been reduced from 27%, three years ago, to 2% as of today. We would like it to go down to 1%.

Also, we have started a project to import in LNG. We know that using the LNG – rather than using the oil - has contributed to the air refreshing and cleaning of the environment. We have replaced the oil by LNG for the power generation. These are some of the activities that the oil sector has taken as a form of contribution to the corporate social responsibility aspect of the job.

What is your long-term vision of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation inside Kuwait?

The company’s long-term vision is to be a secure supplier of oil and to contribute to any shortage in the world. We strive to produce a clean energy. Most of our projects are environmentally friendly. Also, we are looking ahead to produce more gas, so that we can be more of a gas company and less of an oil company – this is our dream. This, of course, requires a lot of work and exploration but it is our intent to produce a clean energy that would contribute to the market requirements, of course, but also to the local environment. This is where we are heading with our projects. Needless to say, we will take care of our people to raise their skills, so that they are able to manage and complete all these projects. We aim to reach maybe 100% of “kuwaitization”, which is a big challenge as well.