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Kuwaiti oil minister says high oil price not due to supply/demand
Aljazeera
Sheikh Ahmed Fahed al-Sabah, Kuwaiti oil minister
By Elio Ohep
Petroleumworld
CARACAS
Petroleumworld.com 04 03 06Sheikh Ahmed Fahed al-Sabah, Kuwaiti oil minister said Sunday that high oil
prices were not a result of supply or demand fundamentals but geopolitical
concerns, Platts reported.Sheikh Fahed al-Sabah said in a statement to official news agency KUNA that while OPEC did not have a "preferred" oil price, crude prices should be at levels
that did not harm the world economy but at the same time should meet the
demands of upstream and downstream capacity expansion plans.
"There is no firm number for what constitutes a fair oil price because
the factors that are affecting the price are outside the context of supply and
demand fundamentals," the Kuwaiti minister said.
Prices should not be so high as to hamper world economic growth, Sheikh Fahed al-Sabah added.
"The oil price should be a help and not an obstacle to world economic
growth," Sheikh Ahmed said. He added that developing countries in particular
were very vulnerable to high oil prices, Platts reported.Kuwait oil refining capacity
Sami al-Rsheid, chairman of the Kuwait National Petroleum company told reporters Sunday, the country oil refining capacity will reach 1.4 million barrels a day by 2011 when a new largest refinery comes on line, and two of the existing ones are upgraded, Dow Jones reported.
"As for the new refinery...we have finished initial designs and tender documents," Sami al-Rsheid, said.
The current capacity from Kuwait's three refineries -Mina al-Ahmedi, Mina Abdullah and Shuaiba -is 930,000 b/d. Shuaiba will be decommissioned when the new facility comes on line in April 2010.
Bids are due to be invited this month for the $6.3-billion project, 615,000 b/d. which will be built in Mina al-Zour in southern Kuwait, he added.
The upgrading of Mina al-Ahmedi and Mina Abdullah is expected to be completed by the end of the company's five-year plan in 2011, he said.
Kuwait currently produce around 2.6 million b/d.
- Elio Ohep, editor@petroleumworld.com, 58 412 995 3730, Caracas.
Petroleumworld News 04 03 06
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