Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05KUWAIT3943
2005-09-05 13:00:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Kuwait
Cable title:  

KUWAITI ENERGY MINISTER ON OPEC INTENTIONS,

Tags:  ECON EPET MOPS KU IZ 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

051300Z Sep 05
C O N F I D E N T I A L KUWAIT 003943 

SIPDIS

LONDON FOR TSOU
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY FOR IE
EB/ESC/IEC FOR GALLOGLY, DOWDY
DOE FOR M.WILIAMSON

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/30/2015
TAGS: ECON EPET MOPS KU IZ
SUBJECT: KUWAITI ENERGY MINISTER ON OPEC INTENTIONS,
EXPANSION OF NORTHERN FIELDS, INVESTMENT IN U.S. REFINERY
CAPACITY


Classified By: Ambassador Richard LeBaron for reason 1.4 (b)

C O N F I D E N T I A L KUWAIT 003943

SIPDIS

LONDON FOR TSOU
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY FOR IE
EB/ESC/IEC FOR GALLOGLY, DOWDY
DOE FOR M.WILIAMSON

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/30/2015
TAGS: ECON EPET MOPS KU IZ
SUBJECT: KUWAITI ENERGY MINISTER ON OPEC INTENTIONS,
EXPANSION OF NORTHERN FIELDS, INVESTMENT IN U.S. REFINERY
CAPACITY


Classified By: Ambassador Richard LeBaron for reason 1.4 (b)


1. (C) Ambassador spoke to Kuwaiti Energy Minister Shaykh
Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Sabah on 5 September. Most of the
conversation was about ideas on implementing the generous
Kuwaiti donation for hurricane relief (see septel),but
Ambassador took the opportunity to solicit Shaykh Ahmed's
views on the upcoming OPEC meeting in Vienna. The Minister
said he was very encouraged by the Iranian announcement
Sunday of its intention to increase production by 500,000 to
1 million barrels per day. He noted that Iran is usually the
hard case in OPEC, but that a lot of OPEC countries are
pressing Iran to increase production, and pressing to
increase their own quotas. He expected that "everybody" in
OPEC wants to be constructive at the Vienna meeting.

Northern Oilfields Project
--------------


2. (C) Ambassador asked for the Minister's view on whether
the GOK has the National Assembly votes to pass in the
upcoming National Assembly session the huge northern
oilfields expansion project, called Project Kuwait. Shaykh
Ahmed said he was "very confident" that they have the
necessary votes and that new names are joining the "yes"
column on a regular basis. (Note: This is consistent with
what we are hearing from all sources in Kuwait.)

Investment in U.S. Refinery Capacity
--------------


3. (C) Ambassador recalled for the Minister the conversation
during the Prime Minister's recent visit to Washington on
Kuwaiti willingness to invest with U.S. firms on expansion of
U.S. refinery capacity. Shaykh Ahmed replied that Kuwait is
ready and willing to "work with U.S. main companies supported
by you" in order to build new refinery capacity or upgrade
existing capacity. He said he had not heard from anyone on
the U.S. side about this idea since the Washington
conversation on July 1. Ambassador remarked that the loss of
refinery capacity due to the hurricane might spur some fresh
thinking in the U.S. about the need to break the logjam on
refineries, and that we continued to appreciate the Kuwaiti
willingness to be involved.

********************************************
Visit Embassy Kuwait's Classified Website:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/
********************************************
LEBARON