MEOG: Kuwait keeps moving upstream

This week’s MEOG looks at the various projects under development by Kuwait as it seeks to achieve lofty oil production capacity targets.

State-owned Kuwait Oil Co. (KOC) is expected to issue tenders for high-pressure water injection to increase oil production from northern oilfields.

Local industry sources were quoted by the Kuwaiti Al-Anba Arabic language daily as saying that the tenders would relate to KOC’s assembly centres 29 and 30, which each have a capacity of 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil and 60mn cubic feet (1.7mn cubic metres) per day of gas.

According to comments in October by the CEO of KOC’s parent firm Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC), Hashem Hashem, such water injection facilities will be central to the company’s plans to increase Kuwait’s maximum sustainable capacity for oil production from the current 2.6mn bpd to 3.5mn bpd by 2025, and 4mn bpd a decade later.

He also highlighted work on gathering centres, the expansion of water-handling facilities as well as upgrades to existing Jurassic production facilities and the addition of new production units and wells, particularly from North Kuwait, as key to this growth.

The sources quoted by Al-Anba said that raising water injection capabilities would serve to prolong the lifespan of the emirate’s reservoirs.

Meanwhile, a group of officials from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia met this week to hold talks about the future development of oil projects in their shared Partitioned Neutral Zone (PNZ). The meeting follows a recent gas export deal for the area and an uptick in oil output, which has been slowly rising since an almost five-year hiatus.

Both countries are working to increase their own domestic oil production capacities – though from very different starting points – and the development of the shared area aligns with a broader upward trajectory.

The Permanent Joint Committee, comprised of officials from Kuwaiti Ministry of Oil (MoO) and the Saudi Ministry of Energy, met in the PNZ on January 31, examining any issues that may slow or the hinder the completion of “strategic” projects at the Al-Khafji and Wafra oilfields.

On its website, the MoO reported that the committee had “reviewed the reports of petroleum operations in the land divided zone and the submerged divided zone adjacent to it […] and the use of advanced modern technologies in petroleum operations”.