Kuwait names acting oil minister

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait Oil Minister Ali Al-Omair was moved to the Public Works Ministry in a limited cabinet reshuffle following a row with top oil executives, according to a royal decree.
Finance Minister Anas Al-Saleh was appointed as acting oil minister, in decrees cited by the KUNA news agency.
The decrees also announced accepting the resignation of Ahmad Al-Jassar, who held the portfolios of electricity and water and public works.
Al-Jassar resigned in September after being sentenced to two years in jail for wrongly approving a $215 million contract that inflicted heavy losses on the state.
State Minister for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Sabah was appointed as acting minister of electricity and water.
Al-Omair, who is also state minister for national assembly affairs and an elected MP, was appointed oil minister in January 2014.
At the start of November, Kuwait Petroleum Corp. CEO Nezar Al-Adasani refused to carry out the oil minister’s decision to swap the CEOs of two subsidiaries.
Al-Adasani said in a letter that the minister had no power to make the decision and the two officials also rejected the minister’s order.
Kuwait is pumping around 2.8 million barrels per day and sits on around 7.0 percent of world reserves, according to latest data.
The sector generates more than 90 percent of public revenues.
The Kuwaiti Cabinet was formed after a July 2013 general election.