Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) will reinforce security measures at oil installations in co-ordination with the country’s interior ministry, a KNPC official spokesman said yesterday.
“Intensive security plans to protect oil installations and facilities will be supported by the military and taken up after co-ordinating with the Ministry of Interior and its subsidiary bodies,” Khaled al-Asousi was quoted as saying by state news agency KUNA yesterday.
He did not provide further details.
A year ago an Islamic State group suicide bomber killed 27 people when he blew himself up inside a Shia mosque in Kuwait City, the first attack of its kind in the major oil-exporting state.
Opec-member Kuwait pumps 3mn barrels of crude per day and has three refineries with a combined capacity of 930,000 bpd.
Meanwhile, Kuwait said yesterday it plans to tap the international debt market through bond issues to finance its budget deficit after recording a first shortfall in 16 years.
The oil-rich Gulf state plans to “borrow up to 3bn dinars ($10bn) in US-denominated bonds from international markets, in both conventional and (Islamic) sukuk issuance,” Finance Minister Anas al-Saleh told parliament.
The ministry will borrow another 2bn Kuwaiti dinars ($6.6bn) in both conventional and Islamic instruments from the domestic market, Saleh said.
It will be the country’s first foreign debt in around two decades. Parliament yesterday overwhelmingly passed the budget for 2016/2017 projecting a huge deficit due to the slump in oil prices.