The Oil Sector

The Council of Ministers

The Council of Ministers is the executive arm of the State. Article 123 of the Constitution provides that the Council of Ministers shall control the interests of the State and shall draw its public policy, follow up on its execution and shall supervise the activities of the government administrations

The High Petroleum Commission

The Commission was formed by virtue of an Amiri Decree issued on the 26th of August, 1974. Six members of the Cabinet including the Prime Minister are members of the High Petroleum Commission.

Article One (as amended by Amiri Decree of 18th January, 1987) provides that the Commission shall be composed of six Cabinet Ministers. These are, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Commerce and Industry, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Oil and the Minister of Planning together with six experts appointed by Amiri Decree for a term of three years.

Article Two provides that the objects of the Commission shall be, inter alia, to draw the general policy for petroleum resources, to safeguard it and to ensure its proper exploitation. It also has the responsibility of developing all related industries to ensure the optimum exploitation of this wealth, to maximize returns and to achieve the completion of the national petroleum industries. All this should be achieved within the framework of the national economic and social development plan.

The Commission formulates the general policies and guidelines of the KPC (Article 16 Law No. 6 for the year 1980) and constitutes the extraordinary assembly of KPC's wholly owned companies (Ibid Article 6).

Therefore the Commission plays an essential role in setting the general policies of the oil sector. Furthermore, it sets out the general financial basis for the marketing of crude oil and gas (Amiri Decree dated January 17th, 1981).