Monday, Feb 13, 2012
KUWAIT CITY (Dow Jones)-Kuwait, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, sees current oil prices as suitable and a help to boost investments in oil exploration projects, Farouk al-Zanki, chief executive of Kuwait Petroleum Corp., or KPC, said Monday.
"The current prices are suitable and helpful for Kuwait to pump more investments into oil exploration and development projects," al-Zanki told reporters. "The costs of the exploration operation ran high, so the price hikes struck a balance between costs and revenues."
The Gulf state's oil output averaged between 2.9 million and 3 million barrels per day last month, he said.
A Dow Jones Newswires survey earlier this month showed that Kuwait pumped 2.9 million barrels per day in January, up from 2.8 million barrels per day in December.
A Kuwaiti oil official told Dow Jones earlier Monday that the country is currently producing about 2.9 million barrels per day of crude oil, a level which it can "sustain without any issue for long period," the official said.
Kuwait's capacity currently stands at 3.1 million barrels per day but experts sometimes question whether pumping at maximum production capacity can be sustained for a long time.
-By Summer Said, Dow Jones Newswires; +966-546-842373; summer.said@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
13-02-12 1455GMT
