KUWAIT: Oil supplies last October reached 97 million barrels per day; however, that would not necessarily lead to any hike in the global crude price, according to a report released yesterday. The report by the Diplomatic Center for Strategic Studies said that any chance for a hike in the price will rely on OPEC's decision to lower down its production.

The report indicated that production from outside OPEC had increased the commercial reserves of crude oil to around three billion barrels in October 2015, adding that OPEC pumped in around 31.750 million barrels per day during the same month.

The report went on saying that the International Energy Agency (IEA) also predicted that oil prices will remain low in the upcoming five years due to the increase in supplies and decrease in demands on part of developed nations.

By 2020, the forecasted price of oil will be at $80 per barrel, predicted the report which added that the current prices might reach as low as $20 per barrel. It also addressed forecasts for the prices in 2016-17, indicating that several speculative reports and researches pointed at the possibility of US crude reaching the prices of $50 to 60 per barrel.

Despite the lackluster performance for the oil price in 2015, major oil exporters are planning to increase their production, said the center's report, adding that Kuwait recently allocated a sum of $120 billion for the development of the energy sector in the upcoming five years with $50 billion of that money going towards Al-Zour refinery, a project aiming at producing clean fuel energy and petrochemical byproducts. The report also said that Kuwait was focusing on increasing oil production with the discovery of new oil reservoirs north of the country as part of its 2030 development strategy. - KUNA