January 22, 2006	Sunday	Zilhaj 21, 1426

KUWAIT, Jan 21: A senior Kuwaiti oil official on Friday cast doubt on the accuracy of a report by industry newsletter Petroleum Intelligence Weekly (PIW) that the Opec producer’s oil reserves are only half those officially stated.

I have no idea where they got this figure from ... I don’t think it’s accurate, Farouk al-Zanki, the chairman of state-run Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) told Reuters in Kuwait City.

PIW said on Friday that according to internal Kuwait records the newsletter saw, Kuwait’s actual oil reserves, which are officially stated at around 99 billion barrels, or close to 10 per cent of the global total, are a good deal lower.

London Brent crude futures rose $2 on Friday to its highest level since early September after the PIW report. March Brent rose $2.01 to $67.24 a barrel. Ahead of the report, Brent had already gained $1.50 on mounting concern about supply from Iran and Nigeria had already fuelled a rally of $1.50.

The newsletter said that according to data circulated in KOC, the upstream arm of state Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC), Kuwait’s remaining proven and non-proven oil reserves are about 48 billion barrels.

However Zanki said that, the official estimate of reserves was much higher than that.

We are always evaluating our reserves, Zanki said. Up to now, they are set at 95 (billion barrels) ... I don’t know who gave them (PIW) those figures, I have no idea, but I don’t think it’s 100 percent accurate.

The KOC chief said that the Kuwaiti reserves figure changes every year due to explorations.

One year we add (reserves), another year we don’t and in the one after that we add more, Zanki added. The additions of reserves are not fixed, and each year we are adding reserves.

PIW said the official public Kuwaiti figures do not distinguish between proven, probable and possible reserves.

But it said the data it had seen show that of the current remaining 48 billion barrels of proven and non-proven reserves, only about 24 billion barrels are so far fully proven — 15 billion in its biggest oilfield Burgan.

Kuwait has been adding up to 500m barrels a year at Burgan which means the remaining non-proven reserves of some 5.3 billion barrels will likely be upgraded to proven, according to PIW.

Three consortia led by BP, Chevron and ExxonMobil are in the race for Project Kuwait, a 20-year operating service contract to raise crude capacity at four oilfields in the north of Kuwait. —Reuters