Kuwait's oil reserve 104 bln barrels

Dr. Hani Al-Ghaos, a Kuwaiti economist, said Wednesday the estimates that put the country's proven oil reserves at 104 billion barrels are "very realistic." "The Burgan oilfield has abundant quantities of reserves," Al-Ghaos told a symposium held here Wednesday evening by Kuwait Economic Society (KES) under the theme of "Kuwait 2012 - Economic Outlook." "The exploitation of the expertise, cost-effective methods and hi-tech is the key to better development of the oil sector," he stressed. "The global energy giants resort to mergers and takeovers of other companies in order to maximize benefit from the advanced technologies," Al-Ghos pointed out. He expected that 2012 will be the year of "unconventional oil crudes," noting that there are very promising scientific achievements in this domain. Dealing with Kuwait's daily consumption of oil, Dr. Al-Ghaos said it amounts to 300,000 barrels out of which 50,000 barrels go to the transport sector. On his part, CEO of Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) Manaf Al-Hajeri affirmed the strength of Kuwait's financial position. However, he criticized Kuwait Stock Exchange, saying it no longer plays its role as a catalyst of investment and a link between investors and capitalists. KES is a professional and intellectual NGO initiative designed to catalyze sustainable economic development through building partnerships between civil society, private sector and and policymakers.