Ten years ago Kuwait was tussling with Iraq to be Opec’s third largest producer. But the intervening years have seen it lag behind its peers to the point where it is now the fifth largest and dependent on US Iran sanctions to leapfrog Iran back into fourth.
Kuwait output now lies a massive 360,000 b/d behind Opec’s No.3 the UAE, which pumped 3.10mn b/d in January (MEES, 8 February). That gap is set to widen as Abu Dhabi presses ahead with ambitious expansion plans, while Kuwait picks up the pieces from its failed 2020 plans. (CONTINUED - 1084 WORDS)
