Four Kuwaiti parliament members have proposed a bill that could force the OPEC exporter to cut oil production by linking output to the volume of its reserves.
The bill, which can only be enacted after approval from parliament and the ruler, also seeks to force the government to provide a detailed update on Kuwait's oil reserves, which the government maintains stand at about 100 billion barrels.
"A report issued by the (state upstream arm) Kuwait Oil Co in 2001 and classified 'top secret' indicated that the proven oil reserves stood at 24.205 billion barrels, or less than 25 percent of the announced reserves," the bill said.
"This raises legitimate and justified fears about the exploitation of the whole oil reserves in a very short period of time at current production levels..." it added without giving details about the KOC report.
The bill proposes that production should be set at a percentage that does not exceed the ratio of production in the 2004/05 and 2005/06 fiscal years to reserves volume.
Reserves in the world's seventh-largest oil exporter became a sensitive issue in 2006 when industry newsletter Petroleum Intelligence Weekly (PIW) said it had seen internal records showing reserves were about 48 billion barrels - about half what was officially stated.
The difference was equal to more than 4 percent of global proved oil reserves, according to data in BP's annual statistical review, the oil industry's most trusted.
Kuwait produced 2.58 million barrels per day in May according to a Reuters survey of supply from members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
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