KUWAIT - A Kuwaiti parliamentary commission on Wednesday approved a huge oilfield development project which has been held up for years because of the need for massive foreign investment.
"The committee today unanimously approved the government draft law to seek the help of foreign companies to develop four oilfields" near the border with Iraq at an estimated cost of 8.5 billion dollars, MP Abdul Wahab al-Harun said.
Project Kuwait has been stalled for more than a decade by resistance from MPs who fear that the Gulf emirate's oil resources could be surrendered to international oil companies.
The committee will now submit its report to parliament and Energy Minister Sheikh Ahmed Fahd al-Sabah said the government will ask the full house to debate the issue before the end of the current term on June 29.
"If it is approved by the house, we will immediately start preparations for inviting bidders to the project before the end of this year," Sheikh Ahmed told reporters.
The project to develop the OPEC member's northern oilfields near the border with Iraq was first put forward in 1992.
Kuwait wants to boost oil production from the fields from 530,000 barrels per day currently to 900,000 bpd during the duration of the project, which Harun said MPs had limited to 20 years.
Kuwait, which sits atop around 10 percent of global reserves, has already pre-approved some 25 operator and non-operator foreign companies for Project Kuwait, including Shell, ExxonMobil, BP Amoco, ENI, Total and Chevron.
06/08/2005 13:40 GMT