The Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) has decided to remove oil rigs from the Abdali, Rawdatain and Ratqa fields on the Iraqi border to the south of the country. Company officials stated that oil production will be maintained by a minimal workforce at normal levels, reported AFP.
The entire northern region of the Gulf emirate had been officially sealed off as a "military exclusion zone" as of Saturday, February 15. It is planned to raise production levels from the country’s southern fields in case a war with Iraq would shut down the northern fields altogether.
Kuwait's Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah said that “the train of war is already on the tracks,” and that only a miracle could avert a war in Iraq, reported the official news agency KUNA.
Sitting atop nearly 10 percent of the world's oil reserves, 96.5 billion barrels, Kuwait is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The Gulf state’s output quota was raised to 1.966 million barrels of oil per day (bopd) from February 1. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
