Africa.

KPC's overseas E&P arm, KUFPEC, has upstream oil and gas interest in Africa, like Algeria, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia and other countries (omt25KwtTrE&PJun22-09). But KPC's downstream investments in Africa have been limited, though the situation might change as several countries have begun to improve their investment climate.

An Egyptian-Kuwaiti JV, Egypt Kuwait Holding Co., was in May 2005 one of five bidders to take 88.25% in Egyptian Fertiliser Co. But the JV lost in that bidding war. Kuwaitis have since 2005 been among local and GCC investors, together with the state-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. (EGPC), planning to have a 130,000 b/d grassroots refinery built in the Suez Industrial Zone at Ain el-Sokhna near the Red Sea port of Suez. The consortium then expected to establish a project company to develop and operate the plant which was to start up by end-2008. The plant was to turn heavy/sour crudes into premium fuels for export.

On July 7, 2006, Uganda's "investment and trade officer in the Arab countries, Rashid Yahya Ssemuddu", was quoted by the local paper, Daily Monitor, as saying two Kuwaiti tycoons had told his government of their interest to invest there, especially in the petroleum sector. Ssemuddu said they were willing to invest $100-400m, adding: "They are interested in refining the oil. They have the capital required and experience". He named Abdullah Hadram of Rafad Int'l, who he said had interests in petroleum processing, and Shati al-Hajeri, with interests in construction. It was then reported that Kuwait's interest in Uganda's oil came as Hardman Resources of Australia was doing tests to determine the country's oil deposits in Block 2 in the south-west. By then results had indicated that Waraga-1 well had a flow rate of 10,000 b/d.

The Executive Director of the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), Maggie Kigozi, was then quoted as saying the UIA had asked the investors to consider livestock farming. The livestock could be slaughtered, packed and exported to Kuwait. The Kuwaiti businessmen then met President Yoweri Museveni and "he asked them to invest in fruit processing".Daily Monitor said: "After discovering impressive oil potential in Western Uganda, [the] government has decided to expedite development of a national oil and gas policy to guide the country in exploitation of its petroleum resources. Technocrats were scrutinising the first draft of the policy. The government would commence negotiations with companies on whether the oil should be refined in Uganda or at Kenya's Mombassa Port".