KUWAIT CITY (AFP) – OPEC member Kuwait on Monday appointed Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah al-Sabah, a senior member of the ruling family, as full-time oil minister, the official KUNA news agency reported.

Sheikh Ahmad, a former health and communications minister, was sworn in by the emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah and is due to take the oath in parliament on Tuesday, KUNA said.

Kuwait has been without a permanent oil minister since the new cabinet was formed a month ago, with Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Sabah holding the post on an interim basis.

A former top banker, Sheikh Ahmad’s first cabinet appointment was in 1999 as finance minister.

He was forced out as health minister in March 2007 after 10 MPs filed a motion for a vote of no-confidence against him following a grilling in parliament over allegations of mismanagement.

As a result, the cabinet resigned and Sheikh Ahmad was left out of the new line-up.

Kuwait, OPEC’s fourth largest producer, pumps around 2.2 million barrels of oil a day and says it sits on around 10 percent of global proven reserves.