GE Oil & Gas has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), a subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC), to collaborate in the state of Kuwait in research and development, develop cost-effective solutions for the oil and gas sector and provide specialised training programmes for engineers to strengthen Kuwaiti skilled talent.
The signing ceremony took place on the eve of the opening of the 16th GE Oil & Gas Annual Meeting in Florence.
Rafael Santana, president and CEO of Turbomachinery Solutions, signed the MoU on behalf of GE Oil & Gas and Hashem Hashem, CEO of KOC, signed on behalf of KOC.
“This agreement underlines our commitment to working in true partnership to promote the development of local human capital including technical skills of young engineers,” said Santana.
Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of GE, and Lorenzo Simonelli, president and CEO of GE Oil & Gas, were also present together with Nizar Al-Adsani, CEO of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.
Rami Qasem, president and CEO, GE Oil & Gas Middle East, North Africa & Turkey remarked: “as a long-term partner of KOC, it is fantastic to be able to grow our relationship by sharing our knowledge base and advancing training initiatives in Kuwait.”
Hashem Hashem of KOC said: “As we go forward, realising success will hinge on collaborating with local and international institutions. For this, KOC approached GE Oil & Gas to achieve a collaborative partnership that comes in-line with Kuwait International Petroleum Research Center’s (KIPRC) collaboration strategy and can be used to promote cooperation in areas that address our collective challenges and to support the acceleration of the learning curve in KOC in accordance with R&D/TM Roadmap. The parties, KOC and GE Oil & Gas, shall together promote cooperation in research and development and technology innovations, education and training and the development of KOC employees.”
GE Oil & Gas offers an extensive portfolio of highly reliable machinery and equipment to all segments of the oil and gas industry. With a global installed base of more than 20,000 units from production through transportation and processing into finished products, GE Oil & Gas is one of the industry’s major suppliers of turbomachinery, compressors, pumps, static equipment and metering systems.
GE Oil & Gas has a strong industry footprint across the Middle East region, and partners with leading oil and gas companies, petrochemical industries and power and water industry stakeholders. GE’s advanced technologies enable our customers to enhance the efficiency, reliability and productivity of their operations.

Source: Oil and Gas Technology