Kuwait's government resigns following months of parliamentary uncertainty

The government of Kuwait, including its oil minister, resigned on April 5 following the resignation of the premier, amid increasing pressure on the OPEC producer to substantially raise its production capacity.

Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Hamad al-Sabah offered his resignation to the Crown Prince, state-run Kuwait news agency reported.

The resignations follow months of political feuding within the Kuwaiti parliament, which is open for democratic debate, unlike its Gulf oil-exporting peers.

The country has seen repeated cabinet reshufflings and changes in government, restricting the ability of the state to carry through with significant policy reform, such as increasing crude output capacity or planning for a net-zero future.

Japan is close to signing an agreement worth $1 billion with Kuwait to help finance the country's crude output capacity increases, S&P Global Commodity Insights reported on March 31.

Kuwait pumped 2.60 million b/d of crude in February, according to the latest S&P Global survey of OPEC+ production. However, the Gulf state is quickly running out of further production capacity.

S&P Global estimates the country has under 40,000 b/d of output upside remaining. There is some additional potential in the Neutral Zone, but so far technical problems have prevented a full ramp-up there to pre-shutdown levels.

Overall, Kuwait's oil sector has been plagued by political instability and frequent turnover at the oil ministry and state-owned oil companies. This has led to delays in projects, including in reinvigorating its giant, aging Burgan field, whose capacity continues to decline.

Many of the fields where new growth could come from are geologically complex and will require significant technical expertise and investment to develop.