Kuwait’s oil minister Mohammad al-Busairi has said the country’s oil production during October averaged 2.9 million b/d, establishing a new peak in output over the past decade. Speaking to Reuters on October 31st he said Kuwaiti oil production peaked at 2.85 million b/d in September 2008, then remained under 2.8 million b/d as global oil prices crashed and recovered, only to climb back over 2.8 million b/d during September this year.
“While Kuwait’s oil production has continued to grow, Saudi Arabia is reported to have scaled back its initial quick output rise in the second and third quarters this year, allowing Kuwait and some other Gulf OPEC producers to raise output,” observed IHS Senior Middle East Energy analyst Samuel Ciszuk.
“In doing so, Saudi Arabia has farmed out—or shared the responsibility for—the initial unilateral production increase decided in opposition to OPEC’s more hawkish members during the organisation’s divisive June meeting, while together with its supporters demonstrated to the global markets that it and its allies are keeping a close watch on the oil demand and supply balance.”
Had Saudi Arabia gone it alone for the whole period, it would have opened itself up to the charge of profiting from OPEC’s weakening, although instead now, the continued close policy unity between traditional OPEC “doves” Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirate, and Qatar, looks cemented—a word which could not be used to describe the stability of the hawkish group mainly consisting of Iran, Venezuela, and Algeria, although they currently are united by certain common grounds.
“For Kuwait, this has been an opportunity to demonstrate part of its increased production capacity, the earlier announcement of which had been greeted with a certain amount of scepticism given the emirate’s long-time inability to get upstream projects moving,” explained Ciszuk.
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