Friday November 13, 12:32 am Eastern Time
US energy secretary meets with Kuwait's oil chief
WASHINGTON, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Kuwait's oil minister met with U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson on Thursday to discuss American oil company participation in the Middle East country's oil sector, a Department of Energy (DOE) spokesman told Reuters.
Skeikh Saud Nasser al-Sabah, who became Kuwait's new oil minister this past spring after a reshuffle of the Kuwaiti government, has been in Washington since the weekend.
During their brief meeting on Thursday, Richardson asked al-Sabah about Kuwait's plan to open its oil sector to foreign companies and how much of that business U.S. oil companies can expect to get, the DOE spokesman said.
Al-Sabah told Richardson that he was seeking to obtain new technology, not production-sharing agreements, from foreign oil companies to increase crude production in Kuwait's northern fields.
The oil minister said between $5 billion and $7 billion in new foreign investment would be needed to accomplish the job. But didn't say how much of that would be targeted toward U.S. companies.
The Kuwaiti government wants to obtain technological help from foreign oil companies to boost the country's oil production capability from its current 2.4 million barrels per day (bpd) to 3.5 million bpd by 2005.
Kuwait has 96.5 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, or about 9 percent of the world's total reserves. Along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait is one of the few oil-producing countries with significant potential for increasing production capacity, according to the DOE.
Al-Sabah told Richardson that he didn't plan to finalize any deals with U.S. oil companies during his visit, which will last through the end of next week. The oil minister said he planned to meet with about half a dozen American oil firms.
The oil minister has already said that Kuwait does not plan to forge production-sharing accords with foreign oil firms in violation of the country's constitution and that parliament's approval of any deals would be sought.
Since 1975, foreign oil companies have been prohibited from participating in Kuwaiti oil production. The country's constitution
states that ''all natural resources and all their revenues'' as state property."
Leaders in Kuwait's parliament have urged the government not to sign any deals with foreign oil companies until a new law is issued outlining the obligations of foreign firms wanting to do business in the Kuwaiti oil sector.
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