Sara Akbar, chief executive of Kuwait Energy, an independent oil and gas company focused on the region, brought to the IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates’ annual energy conference in Houston what she called a “view from the street” on the North Africa/Middle East tensions.
Akbar said that although the region was made up of disparate countries, they had enough similarities that one spark had set off change throughout. Even in Kuwait – which she noted had a very stable political system – there were calls for change.
Influential members of Opec, the oil cartel, are joining Saudi Arabia in raising output to cool soaring prices and allay fears of a supply crunch in the west.
The behind-the-scenes move by Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Nigeria reflects growing unease among Opec members over the threat to the global economic recovery from crude’s runaway rise amid the worsening crisis in Libya.
