Kuwait wants to appoint a new oil minister as soon as possible to replace Sheikh Ali al-Jarrah al-Sabah, who resigned on Saturday after deputies scheduled a no-confidence vote against him, state news agency KUNA said.
Changes in senior positions at the ministry do not usually affect the energy policy of the world’s seventh-largest oil exporter as final decisions are made by a state committee.
Cabinet Affairs Minister Faisal al-Hajji Minister told KUNA late on Sunday that Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah would resolve the matter as soon as possible.
The Gulf Arab state has named Electricity and Water Minister Mohammad al-Olaim, an engineer, as acting oil minister of the OPEC producer.
Sheikh Ali, a member of the ruling family, resigned after Kuwait’s parliament questioned him last week for nine hours over his suitability for office and scheduled a no-confidence vote.
Sheikh Ali came under scrutiny after telling al-Qabas newspaper that he had sought advice from Sheikh Ali al-Khalifa al-Sabah, a former minister who was investigated over a graft scandal.
The new oil minister will face the challenge of bringing a long-delayed multi-billion project to explore Kuwait’s northern oilfields through parliament where the bill has been stuck.
Analysts are also keen to learn more about Kuwait’s plans to raise its oil capacity to four million barrels per day. The last oil minister said in May Kuwait might reach this goal in 2012, eight years earlier than planned, after some recent finds.
Kuwait made an oil and gas find in the al-Dhabi region in the north of the country in April. Sheikh Ali described the find as important but has so far given no details on its size.
Kuwait’s existing oil production capacity is around 2.8 million bpd. It produced around 2.4 million bpd in May, according to a Reuters survey. The country sits on about 10% of global oil reserves.
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