Oil capacity boost for Kuwait

Oil minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah al-Sabah said on Wednesday that Kuwait remains on track to boost its oil output capacity to four million barrels per day by 2020. The statement is retracting a previous announcement that the plan had been delayed for 10 years.

"The target production capacity of crude oil for the state of Kuwait is four million bpd in 2020," Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah al-Sabah said in a statement cited by the official KUNA news agency. "This capacity will be maintained until 2030."

It was only on Tuesday that Sheikh Ahmad told reporters the strategic plan had been delayed for 10 years to 2030 because of a weak market and a lack of skilled workers. He added that to achieve the target the emirate "needed the help of foreign oil majors."

Kuwait, OPEC's fourth-largest producer, announced in March that it had raised its output capacity to three million bpd.

The minister said on Tuesday the emirate still has the same capacity and that its current production is 2.2 million bpd according to OPEC quota. Kuwait says it sits on 10 percent of proven global oil reserves.

Oil is the main support of Kuwait's economy, yet the country has seen projects delayed or cancelled amid fallout from the global economic meltdown.

 

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