KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait's vital oil sector has undergone a major reshuffle, with new executives appointed for the subsidiaries of Kuwait Petroleum Corp, after a new KPC chief was named, the national oil firm said Monday.

The decisions were taken at a meeting late Sunday by KPC board of directors headed by Oil Minister Hani Hussein, replacing all the top executives of the eight subsidiaries and other departments in the KPC.

KPC insisted in a statement that the reshuffle was not linked to the crisis over the controversial payment of a $2.2 billion penalty to US Dow Chemical for scrapping a joint venture in December 2008.

The firm also introduced a new system under which a chairman and a managing director are appointed for each oil company instead of a managing director alone, according to the statement sent to AFP.

Among the main victims of the shake-up is the long-serving Sami al-Rasheed, who was the managing director of Kuwait Oil Co (KOC), responsible for oil and gas exploration and production in the OPEC member.

The new measures also removed the managing director of national refiner Kuwait National Petroleum Co (KNPC), Fahad al-Adwah.

The massive reshuffle in the oil sector, which contributes 95 percent of Kuwait's revenues, comes after Faruq al-Zanki was dismissed as KPC chief executive officer and replaced by Nezar al-Adasani last week.