KUWAIT (AP) -- Kuwait will be ready to proceed with a $7 billion plan to allow foreign investment in its northern oil fields after a three-day oil conference that opens Saturday, Kuwait's oil minister said.
The move has drawn opposition from some members of Kuwait's Parliament, who fear the plan could put part of the country's only natural resource in foreign hands.But Oil Minister Sheik Saud al-Sabah told reporters late Monday that "The countdown for executing this project has started."
He said that after the conference, "we will proceed to look at the selection criteria and to prequalify the international companies that fit these criteria."
Some 230 international oil companies and investment bankers will take part in the upcoming conference to discuss economic, technical and legal aspects of the move.
The discussions will be open to Kuwaiti citizens, who will be able to ask officials and interested companies questions about the project.
Sheik Saud has tried to reassure opponents by stressing that foreign investors will be able to participate only in operating service agreements, not production-sharing deals.
Kuwait's oil sector was nationalized in the 1960s, and Kuwait's Constitution bars foreigners from holding the country's natural resources.
"We have nothing to hide about this project," Sheik Saud said, adding that he believed foreign participation has become inevitable for the enhancement of oil recovery and reserves.
"Many countries, including Arab states in the Gulf, beat us to this," he said. "We are behind, and it is time we press ahead with this project."