Asian consumption will stabilise oil market over next 5 yrs - Kuwaiti oil 

(MENAFN - Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Kuwaiti Minister of Oil Hani Hussain expects oil prices to remain "stable or just under the current level" over the next five years in the wake of "active and increasing" consumption in Asia.

"We hope prices do not witness a huge drop in the next five years, he said, adding that several nations have a huge production capacity, which if increased could affect prices. The the minister told KUNA while welcoming heads of state and senior officials for the first Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) Summit at Kuwait International Airport on Monday.

"Asia is a huge consumer of crude and petroleum derivatives", he said, referring to the importance of the continent as an important market for Kuwaiti exports as "they import 65pct of our production."

The minister views that consumption in western nations - Europe and the US - could remain as is or could drop "to a certain degree." On the importance of the summit of 32 Asian nations Kuwait will be hosting over the next few days, he noted to the large economic growth nations like China and India are currently witnessing as Kuwait "has several very large and important projects in both Vietnam and China, in addition to our large commercial ties with other Asian countries."

These ties include Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) offices tasked with marketing in China, India, Japan, South Korea and Pakistan in addition to excavation and crude production operations in Indonesia, China and Malaysia.