Kuwait City: Opec member Kuwait has upped its crude production capacity by 100,000 barrels per day to 3.1 million barrels per day, the country’s energy minister said in remarks published on Monday.
The Gulf state is also on course to increase its crude-oil production capacity by a third to 4 million barrels per day by 2030, Hani Hussain said, according to state-run Kuwait News Agency, or KUNA.
Kuwait, the fourth-largest crude producer in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, saw its output steadying around 2.81 million barrels per day last month, according to a survey of industry sources and analysts conducted by Dow Jones Newswires.
Gulf Arab producers, led by the world’s top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, increased their output last year following calls by the US and other countries to make up for displaced Iranian barrels because of international sanctions against Tehran’s nuclear program.
But some analysts predict Gulf states will reduce production this year to compensate for increased production elsewhere.
Hussain told KUNA that he doesn’t expect a big jump in global consumption of crude and that current oil prices are reflecting supply and demand. He added that Opec members will have to be careful as there are countries that are hiking their output and that “Opec is looking forward to seeing a good balance between supply and demand.”
Opec scrapped individual members’ production quotas a year ago in favour of a collective ceiling of 30 million barrels per day. It agreed on December 12 to keep that limit in place. Ministers however gave no indication of whether they would do anything to reduce the excess production, which runs about 1 million barrels per day over the level of supply Opec expects the world will need from it next year.
