New oil minister in Kuwait after reshuffle

Kuwait Ministry of Oil

• Tarek Al-Roumi is new minister
• Replaces Nora Suleiman Al-Fassam
• Country seeks to revive sector

A new oil minister, Tarek Suleiman Ahmed Al-Roumi, has been appointed in Kuwait as part of a broader cabinet reshuffle.

Al-Roumi will replace Nora Suleiman Al-Fassam, who is Kuwait’s finance minister and was overseeing the oil ministry temporarily, the state news agency, Kuna, reported.

Al-Fassam stepped in after the resignation in September of the deputy prime minister and minister of oil, Imad Al-Ateeqi.

Al-Roumi has been a long-time senior official in Kuwait’s petroleum industry. He served as the chairman of the board of directors at Kuwait Oil Tanker Company, a subsidiary of KPC, which owns and operates tankers that transport crude oil, refined petroleum products and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

He is expected to bring fresh perspectives and drive reforms, as the country tries to revive its oil and gas sector.

According to the US International Trade Administration, Kuwait, Opec’s fifth-largest oil producer, holds about 7 percent of global oil reserves and has a current production capacity of about 3 million barrels per day (bpd).

The government wants to accelerate new oil and gas findings in line with plans to increase its production capacity to 4 million bpd by 2035.

However, its oil sector has been facing several challenges, including falling output and revenues, which dropped to KD21.6 billion ($79.7 billion), it was reported in July, down 19 percent year on year.

The industry is the country’s most important: it accounts for 95 percent of Kuwaiti export revenues and represents about 90 percent of government income.

While the Kuwaiti government has been pushing for structural reforms in the sector, the country’s parliament has been reluctant to implement changes, including allowing foreign investment. The industry has suffered from low levels of project awards for several years.

As a result, the oil ministry has seen a significant turnover in recent years.

During seven of the past 10 years, “oil GDP growth has tended to be negative, fluctuating in line with Opec supply policy,” the National Bank of Kuwait said in a report in July.

Last July, the state-owned Kuwait Oil Company, a subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, announced a significant discovery of light oil and associated natural gas in its offshore Al-Nokhatha field, located east of the Kuwaiti island of Failaka.

The field holds approximately 2.1 billion barrels of light oil and 5.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, equivalent to 3.2 billion barrels of oil.

Kuwait has also invested in upgrading and expanding its domestic refining capacity. The $30 billion Al-Zour Refinery project, which became fully operational in 2023, was expected to increase Kuwait’s total refining capacity to 615,000 bpd by the end of 2023.