KUWAIT CITY, 27 December 2005 — Kuwaiti MPs delayed yesterday a controversial $8.5-billion oil investment involving help from foreign oil majors and rejected a government request to set a date for its debate.
The MPs voted to withdraw a report prepared by Parliament’s financial and economic affairs committee which approved the government-sponsored project in June, and was due to be debated by the house next month.
Lawmakers opposed to the investment defeated the government and its supporters in a close vote, sending the report back to the committee for further considerations.
MPs also rejected a government request to set Jan. 23 for debating the investment, known as Project Kuwait, which calls for developing four oilfields near the borders with Iraq to boost its production.
Energy Minister Sheikh Ahmad Fahd Al-Sabah called on MPs Wednesday to stop politicizing the investment after 20 lawmakers said in a joint statement they would oppose the project without stringent constitutional guarantees. The MPs insisted that each contract that would be signed with foreign firms must be approved by Parliament, while the government wants lawmakers to approve a draft law that authorizes it to sign such contracts without parliamentary ratification.
The MPs said the bill, which was approved by parliament’s financial and economic affairs committee in June, does not provide sufficient constitutional guarantees to safeguard natural resources.
Project Kuwait has been stalled in parliament for more than a decade because opposition MPs fear that the project would give foreign companies control of Kuwait’s vital oil wealth. The Gulf state wants to boost production from four oil fields near Iraq from a current 530,000 barrels per day to 900,000 during the 20-year duration of the investment.
