MEOG: Kuwait reasserts oil expansion ambition

Kuwait’s state upstream oil firm this week repeated previously espoused ambitions to raise oil production to 4mn barrels per day (bpd) by 2035.

Ahmed Jaber Al-Eidan, CEO of Kuwait Oil Co. (KOC), the upstream subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC), said that the country’s current maximum sustainable capacity (MSC) is 2.9mn bpd, with production averaging 2.55mn bpd during August. Al-Eidan said that MSC would reach 3.2mn bpd by 2025 or 2026, before rising to 4mn bpd by 2035, with a five-year plateau at that level.

His comments restate the target he provided a month or so ago and is five years ahead of the previous 2040 goal.

The goal, though, contrasts with KPC’s strategic outlook, which envisages an MSC of 3.65mn bpd by 2035, to provide an additional $11bn of additional revenues for the country by 2030, according to the parent firm’s CEO, Sheikh Nawaf Saud al-Sabah.

KOC is responsible for around 90% of Kuwaiti oil production and expects to invest upwards of $42bn over the next five years to raise capacity. It is also working to achieve gas output of 1.5bn cubic feet (42.5mn cubic metres) per day by 2040.

Al-Eidan said in September that KOC’s strategy until 2028 includes “drilling of new wells, increasing their output and developing other facilities”.