KUWAIT (Reuters) ; Kuwait said on Sunday it is donating $500 million in oil products and other humanitarian aid to its ally the United States to ease severe shortages caused by Hurricane Katrina.
"The humanitarian aid is oil products that the devastated (U.S.) states need in these circumstances, plus other humanitarian aid to lessen the devastation these three states have been subjected to," Energy Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah told state news agency KUNA.
He said the aid gesture was a duty toward a friend by the tiny Gulf Arab state which was liberated in 1991 by a U.S.-led multinational coalition from seven months of Iraqi occupation.
OPEC WORKING TO Stabilize PRICES
Sheikh Ahmad, who is also OPEC's chief, said in a separate statement that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was working hard to stabilize high oil prices. He reiterated that the 11 cartel members were currently producing 30.4 million barrels per day (bpd) to build stockpiles to help ease prices.
"This output is more than the market needs, in order to build the strategic or commercial crude oil or refined products stockpiles so that that will stabilize prices," he said, adding there was oversupply of over one million bpd in the market.
On Saturday, OPEC's Acting Secretary-General Adnan Shihab-Eldin said some OPEC members like Kuwait and others could reschedule refinery maintenance or release products from commercial stocks to help ease supply problems caused by Hurricane Katrina.
"I know for sure Kuwait is looking at that ... I'm sure (Venezuela) is looking at what else they can do in this respect," he told Reuters on the sidelines of a business conference in Italy.
OPEC said on Friday it was considering further measures to help ease problems caused by Katrina.