Kuwait happy with oil price, but not OPEC compliance

KUWAIT: Kuwait, a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is happy with oil prices but unhappy with the producer group's compliance with output targets, its oil minister said on Thursday.US crude traded around 83 US dollars a barrel, just a few dollars from an 18-month high over $87 hit earlier this month. Oil has stayed for four weeks traded above the $70-$80 range that top exporter Saudi has described as fair.The current price was "very fair", Kuwait's Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah Al-Sabah told reporters after inaugurating a new oilfield facility. There was no need for OPEC to hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss the market, he added.But Kuwait was less content with the group's level of compliance with agreed targets."I am not happy, no," he said when asked about compliance.OPEC has kept its supply targets unchanged since December 2008. As oil prices have risen to their 18-month high from a low near $32 in December 2008, some OPEC members have informally boosted output.Compliance with the group's targets fell to 50 percent in March, according to a Reuters survey.But Kuwait and core Gulf Arab producers Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have held the line and pumped close to target despite higher prices.Capacity, reservesKuwait's output capacity stood at three million barrels per day (bpd), Sheikh Ahmad said. It pumped at around 2.3 million bpd in March, according the Reuters' survey.Sheikh Ahmad declined to comment on the size of Kuwait's oil reserves.Another senior Kuwaiti official was reported on Thursday as saying that oil reserves at the world's second largest oilfield Greater Burgan were higher than previously estimated.LNG resumesIn other news, Kuwait has restarted seasonal imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), a top energy official said on Thursday."We are getting LNG. We already started at the beginning of this month," Kuwait Petroleum Corporation Chief Executive Saad Al-Shuwaib told reporters after the inauguration of a new energy facility.Kuwait will continue to import LNG until the end of October, he said, adding the gas would come from US-based Excelerate, Royal Dutch Shell and another unnamed company.Excelerate's Explorer tanker, which can carry 150,900 cubic meters of LNG, was docked at the Al-Ahmadi delivery terminal on Thursday, according to Automatic Identification System (AIS) live ship tracking data on Reuters.Analysts Waterbourne said in early April the Trinity Arrow LNG tanker, which loaded up in Belgium in March, could deliver its cargo to Kuwait.After taking an unusually long route around the Cape of Good Hope, the tanker was anchored off the east coast of South Africa on Thursday, according to AIS.Kuwait began importing the super-cooled gas for the first time in August 2009 through a terminal which can deliver about 500 million cubic feet a day of gas.The terminal, the first of its kind in the gas-rich Middle East, is used to feed Kuwaiti power stations to meet high air-conditioning demand in summer as an interim solution while Kuwait develops domestic gas reserves.

Source: AlWatanDaily