Oil prices hovering around the $100/barrel mark are fair, and not cause for concern," Kuwait Petroleum Corp CEO Farouq Al-Zanki told official news agency KUNA on the sidelines of an industry conference Tuesday.
Price fluctuations are not worrying as long as they remain around the $100/b-mark, he said. The main factors behind current price fluctuations are stockpiles, tensions between Iran and the West, and market speculators, he told KUNA.
Al-Zanki also said that state refiner KNPC would most likely issue tenders in the first quarter of 2013 for construction of a 650,000 b/d refinery and implementation of a clean fuels project. He said the projects' plans were on track.
Kuwait's current actual oil production stands at around 3.05 million b/d. The OPEC member has a national target of boosting oil production to 4 million b/d by 2020. Al-Zanki said plans to increase production levels were going according to schedule.
At 1515 GMT Tuesday, NYMEX November crude was at $92.73/b and ICE November Brent was at $110.86/b.
