Kuwait - Shaikh Ahmad Al-'Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.

Retained as Oil Minister and KPC Chairman in the May 29, 2009, cabinet line-up, Shaikh Ahmad was first appointed to this post in February this year, having succeded in this post Muhammad al-Ulaim. On May 29, Shaikh Ahmad was also given the information portfolio. His efforts now are concentrating on revival of Project Kuwait to develop northern oilfields and of the $20 bn project to have a 615,000 b/d oil refinery built at al-Zour, despite opposition from the new parliament.

Visiting Beijing, Shaikh Ahmad on May 11 signed an agreement with Sinopec to have a $9 bn integrated 300,000 b/d refinery and 1m t/y ethylene complex in the province of Guangdong to process Kuwaiti crude into premium downstream chemicals. The JV will be owned 50% by Sinopec, 30% by KPC, 10% by Shell and 10% by Dow Chemical. Shaikh Ahmad said the refinery will be on stream in 2013, with the cost of the whole JV having risen from $5 bn since 2005. But a new site for the complex is yet to be decided after China rejected earlier plants to have it built at Nansha due to environmental concerns.

Shaikh Ahmad's predecessor in February was Shaikh Ali al-Jarrah al-Sabah who from March 2007 until then was energy minister. Until then, the ministry had changed from oil to cover the whole energy sector. Shaikh Ali's predecessor was Shaikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who had held the energy portfolio including petroleum since it was created in 2004 (see profiles in omt25KwtWhoJun20-05 & omt26KwtWhoJun25-07).

Like his predecessors, Shaikh Ahmad's performance will be judged on Project Kuwait to develop five northern oilfields, a huge project stalled since 1994 by parliament's Economic and Finance Committee.Conceding a key demand over Project Kuwait, the Oil Ministry will allow parliament to approve each of its related contracts with IOCs and the new government has agreed to replace the nine non-government members of the SPC with ministerial figures to avoid accusations of conflict of interest, though the latter change would lessen the council's expertise in petroleum affairs. But a number of problems could delay the project even further.

In project Kuwait, differences with parliament revolve around the proposed enhanced technical service agreement (ETSA) model which KPC has worked out for IOCs which have bid for development of the emirate's northern, western and southern oilfields, with the aim of boosting the emirate's crude oil production capacity from 3m b/d not to 4m b/d by 2020. The primary objective is to make this capacity sustainable for decades. Shaikh Ahmad agrees with KPC's upstream head Sami al-Rushaid who is chairman and CEO of local E&P unit Kuwait Oil Co. (KOC).

Rushaid says these is no point in signing an ETSA first and then submitting it to parliament for approval, arguing that house approval before the signing is a much more appropriate approach. The same goes for parliamentary approval of the contract packages for the 615,000 b/d al-Zour refinery and other projects.

On the SPC's final line-up, PM Shaikh Nasser now agrees with Shaikh Ahmad and his advisers, notably including the oil minister's top adviser Shaikh Nawar Saud al-Sabah, that the non-governmental members be replaced by ministerial figures. This is because some of ...