Kuwaiti Minister of Energy Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said Kuwait's oil production will reach 2.7 million barrels per day (bpd) in the next few days, the Kuwait News Agency reported on Sunday.

    Before his departure to the United Arab Emirates to participate in the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference(ADIPEC 2004), due on Sunday, Sheikh Ahmad said Kuwait is playing avital role in OPEC and is working on supplying the market with crude oil and its derivatives.

He hoped the conference would be successful, indicating that Kuwaiti participation would be huge as the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation is looking forward to this event especially when alarge turnout is expected due to the rapid development of the oil prices.

He believed the continuous increase in the oil prices is due to political, environmental and technical factors, not supply shortage.

As for his expectations of the prices during the upcoming stage,Sheikh Ahmad said it is hard to speculate as the prices are alsolinked to terrorist operations and other political factors. World oil prices have reached 53 US dollars per barrel in the US market lately, while some expect the prices to increase to 60 dollars per barrel in winter.

ADIPEC first kicked-off in 1984 and is held every two years.Latest techniques in the oil and gas sectors are displayed during the conference and many meetings are also held on the sidelines to discuss recent technical developments in this field.

Source: Xinhua