Kuwait oil reserves only half official estimate

January 21st, 2006 at 11:45 Björn Hallberg

Kuwait is small fish in the scheme of things obviously with “only” 10% of the world total (or so they claim). But overall, statistics are murky and OPEC in particular have not been forthcoming with its total reserves. It is very likely that numbers across the board have been fudged.

Reuters - OPEC producer Kuwait’s oil reserves are only half those officially stated, according to internal Kuwaiti records seen by industry newsletter Petroleum Intelligence Weekly (PIW).

(KOC), the upstream arm of state Kuwait Petroleum Corp, Kuwait’s remaining proven and non-proven oil reserves are about 48 billion barrels.

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.

And of course, this is even more reason to control what little there is left. It is also very likely that the higher echelons of the US government, given their close ties with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia would in fact have more accurate numbers. Which in turn could explain their rushed program of pacification in the region.

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