COLUMBIA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Advanced Refining Technologies LLC (ART), a joint venture between Chevron Products Company (Chevron) and W. R. Grace & Co. (NYSE:GRA), and Kuwait Catalyst Company (KCC) have agreed to expand their relationship to provide enhanced products and services to petroleum refiners in the Middle East and around the world. ART was established to develop and supply hydroprocessing catalysts and is the largest shareholder of Kuwait Catalyst Company, a privately held Kuwaiti company and a supplier of hydroprocessing catalysts for petroleum refining in the Arabian Gulf region.
The agreement provides ART with exclusive access to KCC’s state of the art manufacturing capacity and highly skilled operations personnel. Additionally, KCC will have greater access to ART’s premier catalyst technology and commercial resources, including technical services, to work with ART in supporting petroleum refiners in Kuwait as well as other Middle East countries. The KCC site in Shuaiba, Kuwait will be integrated into ART’s global manufacturing network.
“This new agreement with KCC advances ART’s strategy of expansion in emerging regions,” said Scott Purnell, Managing Director for ART. “Leveraging KCC’s manufacturing capabilities and customer relationships with ART’s technology and service establishes a strong foundation to meet current and future petroleum refining needs in the Middle East and globally.”
Woody Shiflett, Deputy Managing Director for ART, added that “ART and KCC will work jointly to ensure that refining customers receive the best technology to address their processing challenges and overcome constraints. Local production will ensure efficient lead times for refiners in Kuwait and elsewhere in the region.”
Saad Akashah, Chairman of the Board of Directors of KCC added, “This agreement provides the customers of ART and KCC with excellent products and services combined with quick response and delivery. Foremost in our minds when formulating the agreements were the needs of current and future customers in the Gulf Cooperation Council.”
ART is a leading global supplier of hydroprocessing catalysts which remove sulfur and other contaminants from petroleum to produce more environmentally-friendly transportation fuels, and allow refiners to process less expensive feedstocks. The use of these catalysts is growing around the world as fuel specifications are becoming more stringent. ART, Chevron, and Grace have supplied catalysts to the region for more than 40 years and Chevron has established a number of technology relationships in Kuwait and the region.
About Grace
Grace is a leading global supplier of catalysts and other products to petroleum refiners; catalysts for the manufacture of plastics; silica-based engineered and specialty materials for a wide range of industrial applications; sealants and coatings for food and beverage packaging, specialty chemicals and additives and building materials for commercial and residential construction. Founded in 1854, Grace has operations in over 40 countries. For more information, visit Grace's web site at www.grace.com.
About Chevron
Chevron is one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies, with subsidiaries that conduct business worldwide. The company is involved in virtually every facet of the energy industry. Chevron explores for, produces and transports crude oil and natural gas; refines, markets and distributes transportation fuels and lubricants; manufactures and sells petrochemical products; generates power and produces geothermal energy; provides energy efficiency solutions; and develops the energy resources of the future, including biofuels. Chevron is based in San Ramon, Calif. More information about Chevron is available at www.chevron.com.
About KCC
Kuwait Catalyst Company is a Kuwaiti Shareholding (closed) Company formed in 1996 by a group of prominent local and international investors. The company’s objective is to provide complete catalytic solutions to the regional refining industry and to satisfy the requirement of catalyst used in the crude oil refining process. For more information, visit www.kcckw.com.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements, that is, information related to future, not past, events. Such statements generally include the words “believes,” “plans,” “intends,” “targets,” “will,” “expects,” “suggests,” “anticipates,” “outlook,” “continues” or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, all statements regarding Grace’s Chapter 11 case; expected financial positions; results of operations; cash flows; financing plans; business strategy; budgets; capital and other expenditures; competitive positions; growth opportunities for existing products; benefits from new technology and cost reduction initiatives, plans and objectives; and markets for securities. For these statements, Grace claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Like other businesses, Grace is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause its actual results to differ materially from its projections or that could cause other forward-looking statements to prove incorrect. Factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements include, without limitation: developments affecting Grace’s bankruptcy, proposed plan of reorganization and settlements with certain creditors, the cost and availability of raw materials (including rare earth) and energy, developments affecting Grace’s underfunded and unfunded pension obligations, risks related to foreign operations, especially in emerging regions, the effectiveness of its research and development and growth investments, its legal and environmental proceedings, costs of compliance with environmental regulation and those factors set forth in Grace’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly report on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K, which have been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are readily available on the Internet at www.sec.gov. Reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on Grace’s projections and forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date thereof. Grace undertakes no obligation to publicly release any revision to the projections and forward-looking statements contained in this announcement, or to update them to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this announcement.