Kuwait's oil minister could be removed from office after a grilling by opposition MPs on Monday, but the OPEC member's oil policy is not expected to change dramatically, analysts said on Sunday.
"I don't think there will be an immediate policy change in the short term, especially with regards to oil production which is governed by the state and OPEC quotas," oil expert Kamel al-Harami said.
The Gulf emirate's oil decision-making is governed by the Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) and the cabinet and is implemented by national oil conglomerate Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) and its affiliated companies. Oil Minister Sheikh Ali Jarrah al-Sabah is a member of the Al-Sabah ruling family and is the eighth oil minister since the emirate's liberation from seven months of Iraqi occupation in 1991.
His possible axing is the latest in a string of political crises over the past 18 months that saw a bitter power struggle, the dissolution of parliament and the forming of three governments.
His role is normally to oversee the implementation of such policies, besides proposing new projects that should be approved by higher authorities. "But frequent changes in the oil portfolio will have some effects in the longer term, particularly on oil projects some of which are already running behind schedule," Harami told AFP.
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