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The Arab Maritime Petroleum Transport Company..the maritime arm of industry celebrates its golden jubilee tomorrow

22-12-2021

Over the past fifty years, the Arab Maritime Petroleum Transport Company played a prominent role in promoting joint Arab action as the maritime arm of the Arab petroleum industry. (The Company) was established with the blessing of the leaders of the member states of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), with the exception of Syria and Tunisia, where the founding agreement was signed on May 6, 1972, for a period of 50 years, and it is based in the State of Kuwait. And its extension was approved after the end of the current period for an indefinite period by the extraordinary general assembly of the company in its meeting held in June 2020 and approved by the Ministerial Council of the Organization (OAPEC) at its meeting held in December 2020. The Arab Maritime Petroleum Transport Company, which is considered the first company to emerge from OAPEC, will hold a celebration on Thursday on the occasion of its golden jubilee in the Egyptian capital, Cairo. In this context, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of (Arabian Maritime Petroleum Transport) Adel Al-Jassem told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) today, Wednesday, that the company's objectives were set to carry out all sea transport operations of hydrocarbons, including crude oil, petroleum products and liquefied natural gas. Al-Jassem added that the maritime transport operations are carried out by leasing its tankers under the cruise system or according to time-leasing contracts on the oil companies in the shareholding countries and international oil companies and in the oil maritime transport markets, indicating that each state that contributes to the company has two members on the board of directors, one of whom is original and the other is a reserve. He stated that he has chaired the company's board of directors since 2005, representing the State of Kuwait, and the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Eng. Tarek El-Mulla, and the representative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Turki Al-Wasemer, represent him. He explained that the company's board of directors appoints its general manager, who is followed by a number of specialized departments that conduct their activities from its headquarters in the State of Kuwait and from the operations office in Egypt. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia accounts for 15.59 percent, Kuwait 15.48 percent, Qatar 14.77 percent and Libya 14.36 percent in the paid-up capital of the company. He indicated that the remaining contributions to the company's capital are distributed between the UAE at 14.17%, Iraq 13.65 percent, Algeria by 8.02 percent, Bahrain by 3.83 percent, and finally Egypt by 0.14 percent. He said that one of the company's most prominent achievements is the gradual increase of its paid-in capital from 150 million US dollars in 2008 to 500 million dollars in 2017 from the company's own funds and returning it to what it was when the company was established. He added that the company has achieved rewarding profits during the past years, as it achieved last year about 20 million US dollars, noting its achievements, including building an advanced fleet that meets the needs of the petroleum maritime transport markets and meets the requirements of international laws and legislation, which consists of 13 tankers of different ages, types and sizes. He stated that the company recently contracted with (Hyundai Shipyard in South Korea) to build four tankers for clean products at a cost of more than 320 million US dollars to replace the aging tankers that will be disposed of during the next three years as part of a deliberate and ambitious plan to modernize and develop the company's fleet. Al-Jassem stressed that the company has had strong relations since its establishment with the prestigious oil companies in the shareholding countries, whether by leasing the company's tankers at preferential prices or by entering into joint projects with them. He added that among the most prominent of these joint projects is the project of transporting and supplying liquefied gas to the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation during the period between 2002 and 2019, in cooperation with Saudi Aramco and Algeria's Sonatrach as gas suppliers. He stressed the company's keenness to strengthen its cooperation with other companies emanating from (OAPEC) and with international companies and shipyards building tankers, institutions and international banks.