KUWAIT CITY, Sept 5, (Agencies): Kuwait National Petroleum Co (KNPC) Chairman Farouk al-Zanki will head parent Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC), a source familiar with the matter said on Sunday.
Zanki, who will replace Saad al-Shuwaib as chief executive, was informed of his appointment on Saturday and is expected to start “within these days,” the source said.
The source said the term was usually three years and would not have an effect on the OPEC member’s energy policy.
Zanki, who took the post of KNPC chairman in 2007, is also a member of the board at KPC, the country’s top state oil company.
It is not known who will head KNPC, Kuwait’s state-refining arm, which is also a unit of KPC.
“It’s good because it’s the first time that someone from the upstream sector is hired to head KPC, and this is what Kuwait needs, to invest and increase production and meet its 2020 production target,” Kuwaiti oil analyst Kamel al-Harami said.
The OPEC member aims to reach an oil production capacity of 4 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2020 and sustain it until 2030.

Kuwait’s state-run oil firms, which could include KPC units Kuwait Oil Co and Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co, are expected to have several management changes, Harami said.
Energy policy in Kuwait, the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter, is set by a council that includes oil industry and other government officials.
The Kuwaiti cabinet is expected to confirm Zanki’s appointment soon, another source said.
The US-educated Zanki has been the head of KNPC, the KPC’s refining subsidiary, since 2007. Before that, he served as head of Kuwait Oil Co, KPC’s exploration and production arm, for several years.
KPC was established in the early 1980s to oversee the emirate’s oil industry at home and overseas. Along with its several subsidiaries it controls close to 100 billion barrels of crude reserves.
The fifth largest producer in the OPEC oil cartel, Kuwait currently pumps around 2.3 million barrels per day. Oil income accounts for about 94 percent of the country’s total revenues.