Kuwait Earns $13.67 Bn From Oil Sales.

Sustained high oil prices have earned Kuwait 4.02 billion dinars ($13.67 billion) seven months into its fiscal year, widely surpassing projected oil earnings, the independent al-Shall economic consultants said on Nov. 5. The price for Kuwait export crude oil for the first seven months of the fiscal year beginning from April 1, 2004 averaged at around $34.40/barrel - 129% higher than the state's budget projection of $15/barrel, Al-Shall said.

Kuwait's "realised" oil revenues up to the end of October came to 4.02 bn dinars ($13.67 bn), 47% higher than estimated oil revenues for the entire year of 2.73 bn dinars ($9.28 bn), said the report. Since Kuwait was able to fetch even higher prices for what it sells as refined products, comprising slightly less than 50% of its average 2.5m b/d output of crude oil, Al-Shall estimated that the state could have actually earned up to 5 bn dinars ($17 bn) in oil, for the seven-month period.

If prices stay high throughout the remaining five months of the fiscal year, the emirate could earn as much as 8.6 bn dinars ($29.25 bn) in total oil revenues, which would surpass most records of oil income for the country. Prices of light/sweet crude oils over the past months have set record highs of more than $50/b, especially for benchmark WTI and Brent crudes. Growing global demand for oil, especially in China, hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, industry worker strikes, political unrest in the Middle East and speculative oil market trading by hedge funds have all contributed to the rise in oil prices. The latest economic brief issued at the end of October by the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) said: "While the IMF and IEA both expect high oil prices to mildly lower world economic growth prospects, the state of the global economy and thus oil demand are expected to remain robust throughout next year [2005]".