Kuwait is considering privatizing its oil-field services sector, a senior finance ministry official said Tuesday, in a potentially controversial move in the petroleum-dependent Persian Gulf state. Fears of industry privatization and pay cuts fueled a three-day strike in April in Kuwait , knocking out nearly half of the country’s production of 2.8 million barrels a day and demonstrating that labor unrest can cause output problems even in tightly controlled Middle East nations. The country is the fifth-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, a 14-nation crude-oil cartel. Kuwait’s privatization review comes as its neighbor, Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter of crude, is preparing to publicly list up to 5% of its state-run oil company. The float of shares in Saudi Arabian Oil Co. , or Saudi Aramco, is part of […]