Kuwait targets to raise its oil production capacity to 4 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2035 from just over 3 million bpd now, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation’s CEO and deputy chairman, Nawaf Al-Sabah, has said.
Kuwait’s cost of production remains below $10 per barrel of oil, while global oil demand will stay at about 100 million bpd by 2050, the top executive of Kuwait’s national oil company has told CNBC Arabia.
Kuwait, a founding member of OPEC, is the cartel’s fifth-largest producer, behind Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“We have witnessed significant interest from international companies in entering Kuwait for offshore exploration,” Al-Sabah told CNBC Arabia.
Earlier this week, Kuwait’s Prime Minister, Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, said that the Gulf oil producer is preparing to invite international oil companies to help it develop recently discovered offshore oil and gas fields.
Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) will turn to foreign majors for collaboration and assistance for the Kuwait Oil Company to develop the offshore fields, the official said at the Kuwait Oil and Gas Show.
KPC is also in discussions with international financial institutions to create a lease and lease-back model of Kuwait’s domestic crude oil pipeline network, the Kuwaiti prime minister added.
Last week, reports suggested that Kuwait is preparing to move forward with a major midstream expansion as it opens a $7-billion pipeline project to foreign capital. The deal involving international partners is part of a broader effort by Kuwait to upgrade transport capacity linking upstream production to export and processing hubs, while easing the financial burden on the state.
Kuwait Oil Company plans to invest as much as $3.9 billion (1.2 billion Kuwaiti dinars) in exploration drilling by 2030, Khaled Al-Mulla, Kuwait Oil Company’s Deputy CEO for Exploration and Drilling, told Reuters at the end of last year.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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