Plans to ramp Kuwait’s oil production on track, despite minister’s resignation

Plans to ramp up oil production in Kuwait remain on track despite the resignation of the country’s oil minister, a top official said Sunday.

Kuwait’s plans include Project Kuwait, the long-awaited oil field development that would open five fields near Kuwait’s border with Iraq to foreign oil companies like Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Exxon Mobil Corp.
Al-Zanki, who is responsible for the country’s onshore and offshore exploration, urged the acting oil minister to approve Project Kuwait. Last year, al-Zanki estimated that this project would add about 300,000 barrels a day to the country’s output.

“We hope the acting Minister of Oil considers the Kuwait Project the top priority,” al-Zanki said.

Project Kuwait was presented in the 1990s. It stalled under the outgoing minister as he commissioned two banks to help him reassess the development of the northern oil fields.

International Herald Tribune