With its short-term strategy lying in tatters, Bloomberg reported this week that Kuwait is now reassessing its $500bn investment strategy to 2040 (MEES, 8 February). Under this Kuwait was targeting oil production capacity of 4.75mn b/d (MEES, 20 April 2018), refining capacity of 2mn b/d and gas processing of 3.7bn cfd (MEES, 30 November 2018). With a radical rethink underway, Bloomberg adds that Kuwait is looking at streamlining its eight subsidiaries – KOC, KNPC, KGOC, Kufpec, PIC, KPI, KTOC and KIPIC – into four firms. But a new strategy may come to naught unless Kuwait’s oil sector can insulate itself from the emirate’s dysfunctional political scene.