Kuwait Petroleum president tours Q8Oils UK

The UK headquarters of Q8Oils UK was one of the first stops for newly appointed Kuwait Petroleum International president Al-Houti, as he visited sites during a global familiarisation tour.

VIP visit launches metalworking fluids Centre of Excellence.

The UK headquarters of Q8Oils UK was one of the first stops for newly appointed Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) president Al-Houti, as he visited sites during a global familiarisation tour of the Corporation's facilities.

The VIP party, which also included KPI vice president - chief operating officer; Al Jassar and newly appointed KPI Vice President - Chief Planning Officer; Mr Jasem, took an in-depth look at operations during the visit and presided over the official launch of the Q8 Oils' Centre of Excellence - a research and development facility specialising in soluble metalworking fluids and a driving force behind the company's Advanced Lubricant Technology Programme.

Al-Houti, appointed as president of KPI in November 2004, praised the achievements of the Q8Oils division in what is an extremely competitive global market, commenting that the set-up of the Centre of Excellence in Leeds would play a major role in the development of new industrial products for the Group.

Being chosen as the focus of the Corporation's industrial lubricant research programme is a matter of great prestige and encouragement for our company." Comments Q8Oils' director Stuart Dron.

"KPI is a vast entity operating through a series of specialised subsidiaries across the world and the president's visit, plus the opening of the Centre of Excellence and the recent investment that has gone into our site, indicates the importance of Q8Oils' Yorkshire base within the Corporation's future plans.

Our success to date has come from pushing the boundaries of lubricant technology; encouraging customer service partnerships and the development of niche markets - a strategy that we will continue to follow as we steadily increase our market share." Technical director Phil Davies explains the role foreseen for the R and D facility: "The Centre of Excellence will reinforce our current abilities and reputation within the industrial lubricants field.

Q8 Oils is already in a unique position within the industry with its team of field service technicians who effectively take the laboratory to the customer and provide on-site support, problem solving and product trials.

With the Centre of Excellence we will now have increased resources, funding and facilities to push into new areas of product development.

Our existing R7D team and field engineers have already brought great productivity and operational benefits to the metalworking, steel rolling and wire drawing industries - allowing our customers to increase efficiency, reduce costs and in some cases reduce environmental impact.

Through the Centre of Excellence we now look forward to making further developments in partnership with our customers and other lubricant research bodies." Opened in 1979, the purpose built Q8Oils' site in Leeds houses a state of the art lubricant blending plant and employs 89 staff.

The plant manufactures and supplies over 900 blend and pack variants of lubricant for the automotive, industrial, marine and power generation sectors in 45 countries around the globe.

Additional facilities include the management and administration centre for sales and marketing.

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