KUWAIT CITY, 2 May 2005 — State-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) yesterday signed a major contract with a Kuwaiti-US firm to set up the emirate’s first calcined petroleum coke plant as part of a privatization plan. The deal with Petroleum Coke Industries Co (PCI), in which three Kuwaiti private firms own 75 percent and US Oxbow and Minerals the rest, calls for setting up the plant at a cost of $150 million. Construction of the plant will start in September and it will go on line in December 2006 to produce 350,000 tons of calcined petroleum coke a year, said Wael Al-Sager of PCI. All production is intended for export to Gulf states, Africa, Europe and Japan in addition to Australia and China.