Kuwait plans big shake-up in oil sector

KUWAIT:  Oil Minister Sheikh Ali Jarrah Al-Sabah said he plans a major shake-up in Kuwait's oil sector by promoting young staff to top posts, in comments published yesterday. "What I have noticed is that the oil sector (management) has become flabby ... Now I plan to promote people from the second and third lines to the top ...

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Sheikh Ali also confirmed to Al-Wasat newspaper that the state's proven oil reserves have fallen to 48 billion barrels, as reported last year by Petroleum Intelligence Weekly, down from an announced 100 billion barrels. However, he said Kuwait has additional probable reserves of around 150 billion barrels, especially after recent discoveries. Last month, Kuwait announced a significant oil and gas discovery in the northern Dhabi area, without giving details of quantities.

Psssschiiitt. People that follow these things know that the reserves of all OPEC countries were artificially inflated in the 80s (when production quotas were linkied to reserves size), but the official numbers were nevertheless still used by all 'serious' publications and institutions.

If Kuwait drops that pretence, will others follow? How many tens of billions of (never real ) reserves will then have 'officially' disappeared?

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes