Petronet Kuwait Files For Liquidation On Monopoly

Petronet Smart Network Company, one of Kuwait’s most inspiring entrepreneurial businesses, filed liquidation with majority shareholder backing, the company said in a statement Friday.

The company was forced to shut-down after being impacted by a series of non-competitive actions taken by the illegal monopoly that today controls 66 percent of all of Kuwait’s gas stations, and 100 percent of Kuwait private gas stations. As a result, today Kuwait is the only country in the world where the private gas stations are majority owned by a single entity through direct and indirect majority investments, the statement said.

From 2001 till March 2012, Petronet was a market maker and a leader of fuel expense management services.

The company’s product is based on a smart card that is issued to the user to pay for fuel expenses. The card is connected to a high-tech network infrastructure across all gas stations, nation-wide. The card and infrastructure supporting it enabled users to track their fuel expenses in a single monthly bill, and monitor the usage, the frequency and the location of every fuel purchase made on the smart card.

Segments who benefited from the card and had long-term dealings with the company, some spanning over eight years, included government entities, ministries, corporations of all sizes, households, and individuals. The service was of particular value to entities that had fleets of cars and had to monitor and settle fuel expenses in a cashless method.

The Saudi Gazette