Kuwait reports increased oil profits in difficult environment

The Kuwait National Petroleum Company said during the weekend it recorded a net profit of $715 million during the last fiscal year. Mohammad Ghazi al-Mutairi told the official Kuwaiti News Agency, known as KUNA, that net sales of petroleum increased last year alongside higher profits.

"The KNPC was able to achieve such profits despite the fierce competition and the challenges facing the oil industry globally as a result of falling prices," he was quoted as saying.

Kuwait is party to an effort led by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to balance an oversupplied market through managed production declines. The deal, implemented in January, helped establish a floor price under crude oil of around $50 per barrel, though the effort has been offset by production gains in the United States.

Economists at OPEC in their market report for April said the Kuwaiti component of the OPEC basket of crude oils declined 5.6 percent from February to March. Crude oil demand at home, meanwhile, increased by about 25,000 barrels per day in February, compared with last year, while the broader Middle East should see demand grow by about 11,000 barrels per day.

Total Kuwait crude oil production is holding more or less stable at around 2.7 million barrels per day.

A March report from Moody's Investors Service found the economic footing of Persian Gulf nations to be under pressure from the decline in crude oil prices that began three years ago

A current account deficit may be indicative of a country living outside its means. Of the GCC members, Oman had the highest account deficit with 20.1 percent of gross domestic, with Bahrain and Saudi Arabia registering moderate current account deficits of around 3.4 percent GDP, Moody's said.

Four of the six members of the GCC -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar -- are OPEC members.