Kuwait has formed a new government and appointed businessman Saad Hamad Nasser al-Barrak as its new oil minister.
The new cabinet has been formed after Kuwait's crown prince reappointed Sheikh Ahmed Nawaf al-Ahmad as prime minister, and tasked him with forming a new government. Sheikh Ahmed's previous government resigned following parliamentary elections earlier this month.
Al-Barrak formally replaces Bader al-Mulla, who was appointed in October before resigning several weeks earlier. Finance minister Manaf al-Hajeri has been acting oil minister, representing Kuwait at the latest Opec and Opec+ meetings in Vienna earlier this month.
Al-Barrak takes control of the oil portfolio at a time of mounting challenges for Opec's fifth largest producer, from navigating the country's relationship with the wider Opec+ alliance, to pressing ahead with the development of its many strategic oil and gas projects. State-owned KPC is two years into a plan to raise the country's crude output capacity, including its share of the Neutral Zone, to 3.5mn b/d by 2025 and to 4mn b/d by 2035, from just below 3mn b/d today ꟷ a target made more daunting given its well-documented capacity expansion struggles.
Argus estimated Kuwait's crude production at 2.57mn b/d in May, well below capacity. This is due to the country's participation in the Opec+ production cut agreement, and the additional voluntary pledge it made in April to cut output by a further 128,000 b/d from May until the end of the year.
Unlike many of his predecessors, al-Barrak comes into the key role with little to no industry experience. He has spent the past five years as vice chairman of the board of directors of the National Fund for small and medium enterprises development, and as a member of the supreme council for planning and development. Prior to that, he spent eight years as chief executive and vice chairman of the board of directors of telecoms operator Zain Group, where he oversaw an expansion into nine countries in the Mideast Gulf and Africa.
