Proposal to turn Kuwait into world’s oil capital – State’s energy consumption up 66%

The concept of ‘Kuwait as the world’s oil capital’ will see the light after being studied comprehensively, said, Fadhel Safar Minister of Public Works and Planning and Development revealed on Thursday. On the sidelines of a preparatory meeting for the country’s second mid-term development plan, Safar told KUNA that the idea of turning Kuwait into a world oil capital goes falls in line with the vision of turning it also into a financial and commercial hub. This can be accomplished by offering a complete set of Kuwaiti oil and manufacturing industries by providing job opportunities for 21,000 potential employees, the minister said during last night’s meeting that included the presence of representatives for the Kuwaiti oil and industrial sectors.

The meeting provided a good opportunity to discusses some of the challenges that hinder the performance of these two sectors such as the lack of space to set up industries and bureaucracy. Ahmad Al-Arabied, a former leading figure in the oil industry, commented that more than 200 Kuwaitis academics and former leaders in the oil sector are creating a framework of their idea of “Kuwait as a world’s oil capital.” Kuwait’s energy consumption, which makes up roughly 16 percent of the oil-rich Gulf nation’s oil production, has risen by 66 percent compared to the year 2000, according to a recent study.

Kuwait consumes around 413,000 barrels per day, exceeding the 14 percent rise in output, according to the study released by the Diplomatic Center for Strategic Studies. Kuwait’s growing energy consumption is a key challenge to strategic
development goals in the country, added the study. It deemed that the hike in energy consumption is a big problem, not only to Kuwait but to several world countries as well. However, it listed the main obstacles to Kuwait’s strategic oil plan, which targets an output rise to four million barrels per day by 2020, as poor oil infrastructure and technological complications of stupendous oil and gas reserves development.

In general, the global oil industry is predicted to face major challenges in the coming decades amid expectations that a high demand for oil will hit 35 percent by 2035, the study indicated. The Arab region, which has a population of 350 million, consumes 10.8 million barrels of energy, making up five percent of the world’s total energy consumption, it added. In Arab countries, the per capita consumption of energy hits 11.4 barrels per annum, which is the fastest rate in the world. Arab oil reserves are estimated at roughly 683 billion barrels, constituting 58 percent of the world’s total energy reserves, the study showed

Kuwait Times