Kuwait can increase its production to meet its July output quota, state-owned KPC chief executive Sheikh Nawaf Saud al-Sabah told the Bloomberg Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday.
Kuwait can also produce more than its July quota, he said, adding that they "have the plans in place right now to ensure that we can continue to match whatever increases are going to be required over the future."
Kuwait did not meet its oil production obligations last month, but did manage to increase its output by 27,000 barrels per day in May to 2.687 million bpd, according to OPEC's secondary sources published in the group's latest Monthly Oil Market Report.
This figure, however, is still under the 2.694 million bpd quota that OPEC assigned to Kuwait as part of the production quota deal. Despite Kuwait's May shortfall of 7,000 bpd from its assigned target, KPC is now insisting that it can meet its July target-which was raised from May levels.
"We are making the investments necessary to ensure that we can meet any new increases in terms of allocations and also in terms of demand," Sheikh Nawaf Saud al-Sabah said, adding, "We always like to maintain spare capacity about 10% to 15% above where we need to be just in case of supply disruptions around the world."
He also said Kuwait was moving into its first offshore production, receiving the first rig a week ago. It will be ready to begin drilling "soon", he said.
OPEC as an entire group failed to lift its production as agreed on for the month of May-and in fact, its production actually decreased for the month, producing just 28.508 million bpd in May, down 176,000 bpd from the month prior, even though its quota had been raised for the month.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group. More