Kuwait's Oil Reserves Overstated By 50B Barrels

LONDON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - OPEC producer Kuwait's oil reserves are only half
those officially stated, according to internal Kuwaiti records seen by
industry newsletter Petroleum Intelligence Weekly (PIW).

"PIW learns from sources that Kuwait's actual oil reserves, which are
officially stated at around 99 billion barrels, or close to 10 percent of
the global total, are a good deal lower, according to internal Kuwaiti
records," the weekly PIW reported on Friday.

It said that according to data circulated in Kuwait Oil Co

(KOC), the upstream arm of state Kuwait Petroleum Corp, Kuwait's remaining
proven and non-proven oil reserves are about 48 billion barrels.

Officials from KOC were not immediately available for comment to Reuters.

PIW said the official public Kuwaiti figures do not distinguish between
proven, probable and possible reserves.

But it said the data it had seen show that of the current remaining 48
billion barrels of proven and non-proven reserves, only about 24 billion
barrels are so far fully proven -- 15 billion in its biggest oilfield
Burgan.

Kuwait has been adding up to 500 million barrels a year at Burgan which
means the remaining non-proven reserves of some 5.3 billion barrels will
likely be upgraded to proven, according to PIW.

Three consortia led by BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research), Chevron (CVX.N:
Quote, Profile, Research) and ExxonMobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research)
are in the race for Project Kuwait, a 20-year operating service contract to
raise crude capacity at four oilfields in the north of Kuwait.