US embassy cable - 05KUWAIT3943

C O N F I D E N T I A L KUWAIT 003943 
 
SIPDIS 
 
LONDON FOR TSOU 
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY FOR IE 
EB/ESC/IEC FOR GALLOGLY, DOWDY 
DOE FOR M.WILIAMSON 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/30/2015 
TAGS: ECON, EPET, MOPS, KU, IZ 
SUBJECT: KUWAITI ENERGY MINISTER ON OPEC INTENTIONS, 
EXPANSION OF NORTHERN FIELDS, INVESTMENT IN U.S. REFINERY 
CAPACITY 
 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Richard LeBaron for reason 1.4 (b) 
 
1.  (C) Ambassador spoke to Kuwaiti Energy Minister Shaykh 
Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Sabah on 5 September.  Most of the 
conversation was about ideas on implementing the generous 
Kuwaiti donation for hurricane relief (see septel), but 
Ambassador took the opportunity to solicit Shaykh Ahmed's 
views on the upcoming OPEC meeting in Vienna.  The Minister 
said he was very encouraged by the Iranian announcement 
Sunday of its intention to increase production by 500,000 to 
1 million barrels per day.  He noted that Iran is usually the 
hard case in OPEC, but that a lot of OPEC countries are 
pressing Iran to increase production, and pressing to 
increase their own quotas.  He expected that "everybody" in 
OPEC wants to be constructive at the Vienna meeting. 
 
Northern Oilfields Project 
-------------------------- 
 
2. (C) Ambassador asked for the Minister's view on whether 
the GOK has the National Assembly votes to pass in the 
upcoming National Assembly session the huge northern 
oilfields expansion project, called Project Kuwait.  Shaykh 
Ahmed said he was "very confident" that they have the 
necessary votes and that new names are joining the "yes" 
column on a regular basis.  (Note: This is consistent with 
what we are hearing from all sources in Kuwait.) 
 
Investment in U.S. Refinery Capacity 
------------------------------------ 
 
3. (C) Ambassador recalled for the Minister the conversation 
during the Prime Minister's recent visit to Washington on 
Kuwaiti willingness to invest with U.S. firms on expansion of 
U.S. refinery capacity.  Shaykh Ahmed replied that Kuwait is 
ready and willing to "work with U.S. main companies supported 
by you" in order to build new refinery capacity or upgrade 
existing capacity.  He said he had not heard from anyone on 
the U.S. side about this idea since the Washington 
conversation on July 1.  Ambassador remarked that the loss of 
refinery capacity due to the hurricane might spur some fresh 
thinking in the U.S. about the need to break the logjam on 
refineries, and that we continued to appreciate the Kuwaiti 
willingness to be involved. 
 
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Visit Embassy Kuwait's Classified Website: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/ 
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LEBARON