Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) announced that its affiliate, Q8Oils, has officially opened its blending plant in Antwerp, Belgium.

The opening ceremony was attended by the Vice Mayor of Antwerp, Mr. Philip Heylen, President of KPI, Mr Bakheet Al-Rashidi, the Board of KPI, and several of Q8Oils’ key customers and members of the Belgian Petroleum Federation.

Mr Al-Rashidi commented that:

“We look with great pride at the work Q8Oils has done in the Benelux region, especially in Belgium. Their growth in retail and direct businesses perfectly demonstrates the ambitious expansion programme that Q8 is pursing in Europe. We are very pleased to be so significantly invested in the European lubricants market, especially our US$100 million investment in the plant and Q8Oils’ success in completing it in 24 months and within budget.

We now plan to fully utilise our new state-of-the-art blending plant as we continue to implement our growth strategy in European markets and elsewhere.”

Kuwait Petroleum Vice President – Europe, Mr Khaled Al-Mushaileh quoted:

“The new high capacity, modern and sophisticated blending plant at Antwerp with superbly enhanced facilities and capabilities is going to play a pivotal role in writing new growth and success stories for our Q8Oils’ lubricants business in Europe and world-wide.”

Kuwait Petroleum Global Business Managing Director, Mr. Fadel Al Faraj added that:

“The Antwerp blending plant was originally built in 1891 as storage for fuel and lubricant imports from the US. Q8 bought it in 1983, and in the past thirty-three years, the plant and its 131 employees have played a vital role in our success in the global lubricants market. What you see here today began as a masterplan. This was developed to achieve our shareholders’ growth ambitions. Now, we are proud to be operating a state-of-the-art, environmentally responsible blending plant with a current capacity of 125 million litres of lubricants, fully scalable up to 250 million litres per annum.”

Q8Oils’ state-of-the-art blending plant in Antwerp is one of largest and most technically advanced lubricant production facilities in Europe. With a multi-million Euro investment just completed, the plant has a blending capacity which is scalable up to 250 million litres per annum. It enjoys excellent access to the UK and mainland Europe by highway, rail and sea. The river jetty can accommodate ships of up to 5,000 tonnes, and with 24 base oil and 42 additive tanks respectively, the plant can efficiently produce the widest range of finished lubricant products of any blending plant in Europe. Furthermore, the mega-blend vessel can manufacture batches up to 400,000 litres and the filling hall is equipped with both semi and fully automatic filling lines. O8Oils’ stringent in-house quality control procedures and world-class technical development capabilities are additionally complemented by ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and RC 14001 certification.