Kuwait: MPs call for cap on oil production

Five lawmakers yesterday filed a draft law calling on the government to limit oil production in line with actual proven reserves, which have been claimed to be lower than the officially stated figure of 100 billion barrels. The four-article bill stipulates that the new production figure should not exceed the percentage of actual output in the past two fiscal years divided by proven reserves. The bill was signed by MPs Ahmad Al-Saadoun, Mussallam Al-Barrak, Mohammad Al-Khalifa, Hassan Jowhar and Waleed Al-Jari, all members of the Popular Action Bloc.
The draft law was filed in light of the controversy raised recently on the actual size of proven Kuwaiti oil reserves after the Petroleum Intelligence Weekly (PIW) reported in January that Kuwaiti reserves were only half of the announced figure of 100 billion barrels. PIW also claimed that proven reserves amounted only to 24.2 billion barrels, citing internal Kuwaiti records it claimed it had seen. Kuwaiti oil authorities have denied the report, with Energy Minister Sheikh Ahmad Fahd Al-Sabah saying that the report spoke only about 31 reservoirs which were being used by Kuwait while ignoring 74 other untapped reservoirs. MP Saadoun had sent a lengthy question to Sheikh Ahmad inquiring about the report but the question has not yet been answered.

Kuwait Times