"The SPC (Supreme Petroleum Council) meeting on Monday will concentrate on the appointment of a board of directors for KPC," a Kuwaiti oil official told Reuters.

The tenure of the board of directors of KPC, which operates the country's domestic and foreign petroleum operations, ran out in mid-March when the government resigned without approving the appointment of a new board.

But Monday's meeting is not expected to appoint board of directors for the various KPC subsidiaries which the country's new oil minister Sheikh Saud Nasser al-Sabah is determined to restructure, the official said.

The SPC, headed by the country's first deputy prime minister and foreign minister Sheikh Sabah a-Ahmad al-Sabah, earlier this month granted approval in Principle for merging KPC's domestic oil producer KuwaitOil Company with KPC oil refiner Kuwait National Petroleum Company.

"The agreement in Principle is for merging the activities of KOC and KNPC either partially or fully," the official added.

"There is also an agreement for studying the possibility of privatising Petrochemical Industries Company and Kuwait Oil Tanker Company," he added, referring to another two KPC subsidiaries.

After Sheikh Saud prepares studies on these plans, he has to represent them to the SPC for final approval, the oil official said.

All such strategic oil industry decision are traditionally issued in the form of a decree by the emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

Sheikh Saud earlier this month told Reuters in an interview that he now heads a special committee which is studying the restructuring of the country's oil industry which was fully nationalised in the 1970s, preceding KPC's creation in 1980.

Kuwait produces slightly less than two million barrels per day (bpd), KNPC has a production capacity from three localrefineries of some 900,000 bpd and KOTC is one of the largest state oil tanker companies owned by a member country of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

In addition to its other activities, PIC has a $2 billion joint venture with Union Carbide in Kuwait known as Equate.