Kuwait Petroleum Sees Oil At $65 A Barrel For Next 6-7 Months

Oil prices are likely to remain around $65 a barrel for the next six to seven months, the head of Kuwait’s state oil company said on Monday.

“I think oil prices will remain at these levels for six to seven months, around $65 a barrel, until world economic recovery is clear or if there were any political crises or OPEC changed its production policy,” Kuwait Petroleum Corporation Chief Executive Nizar al-Adsani told reporters.

At a meeting last month, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided against cutting production to support prices, a departure from its policy of adjusting output to keep crude around $100 a barrel.

Prices have fallen more than 40 per cent since June and Brent crude for January delivery hit an intraday low of $67.73 a barrel on Monday, near last week’s trough of $67.53, which was its weakest since October 2009.

At the meeting in Vienna OPEC stuck to its output target of 30 million bpd, despite its own forecasts of a surplus and calls from members including Iran for output cuts.

Adsani said OPEC member Kuwait’s oil production is around 2.9 million barrels a day (bpd) of crude.

He also said it was “unknown” when crude production from the Khafji oilfield, jointly run by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, would go back online.

The offshore field, which has an output of between 280,000 and 300,000 bpd, was halted temporarily in October to comply with environmental rules.

Current total production from the neutral zone divided equally between the two OPEC members is 200,000 bpd, all from the Wafra onshore field, Adsani said.

Wafra is operated by U.S. oil major Chevron.