Kuwait Oil Co. (KOC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC), the national oil company owned by the state of Kuwait, has signed a $16 billion lease-and-leaseback agreement involving its entire domestic and export pipeline network with a consortium of international infrastructure and institutional investors led collectively by Blackstone, Brookfield and KKR.
KOC is responsible for the exploration, production and transportation of crude oil on behalf of the state of Kuwait. As part of the transaction, a newly formed Kuwaiti-incorporated joint venture will lease the usage rights to all of KOC’s 13 pipelines, spanning a total of approximately 320 kilometers (198 miles) of Kuwait’s pipeline network. Under the terms of the agreement, the JV will grant back to KOC the exclusive use, operational and maintenance rights in the pipeline assets for a 20.5-year period in exchange for a volume-based tariff.
KOC and the consortium composed of Blackstone, Brookf
