Kuwait to raise oil production to 3.15 million bpd within four years

The Gulf country plans to boost its refining capacity to 1.46 million bpd, up from 755,000 bpd

Al-Zour refinery in Kuwait. The oil complex will have a capacity of 615,000 bpd when fully complete. AFP

Kuwait aims to raise its oil production capacity to 3.15 million barrels per day, from the current 2.7 million bpd, within the next four years.

Opec’s fourth-largest producer also plans to increase its natural gas output by about 79 per cent to 930 million cubic feet per day in the same period, the government said on Monday.

The country has set a refining capacity target of 1.45 million bpd, up from 755,000 bpd currently.

In November, state-owned Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries said the first phase of Al Zour refinery had begun commercial operations.

The move will be followed by the second and third phases of the refinery's operations, moving towards full maximum refining capacity, Kipic chief executive Waleed Al Bader said at the time.

The refinery is designed to process heavy crudes and will have a capacity of 615,000 bpd.

Kuwait, which holds about 8 per cent of the world’s oil reserves, produced 2.7 million bpd in 2022, up from 2.42 million bpd a year earlier, according to Opec data.

The country, which is committed to cuts decided by the Opec+ alliance, will produce three million bpd in 2025, the Kuwait Times reported last month, quoting Ahmad Al-Aidan, chief executive of the Kuwait Oil Company.

Mr Aidan said the company intended to spend about $2.42 billion on oil-related projects over the next five years.

Kuwait’s announcement comes amid chronic underinvestment in new oil and gas projects, which has threatened new crude supply.

Upstream oil and gas capital expenditure rose by 39 per cent to $499 billion last year, the highest since 2014, according to the International Energy Forum.

However, annual upstream spending needs to increase to $640 billion by 2030 to ensure adequate supplies, the IEF has said.

Kuwait will invest more than $300 billion in the energy sector by 2040, the country’s oil minister Saad Al Barrak said at the Opec Seminar earlier this month.

Mr Al Barrak also said that the country hoped to have a higher production quota within Opec by the time it expanded its output capacity.

Earlier this month, UAE Energy and Infrastructure Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said he was more concerned about the supply of crude than demand at a time when oilfields are ageing and there is lack of spending on new projects.

The world consumes more than 100 million bpd of crude. About eight million bpd of production needs to be replaced every year but the current level of investment is not sufficient, Mr Al Mazrouei said at an event.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, has said it would extend its production cut of a million bpd, which was initially announced for July, for another month.

Russia will also cut its oil supplies by 500,000 bpd in August on top of the output reductions that have already been announced.

On June 4, the Opec+ group of 23 oil-producing countries agreed to extend its current production cuts until the end of 2024.

The group has total production curbs of 3.66 million bpd, or about 3.7 per cent of global demand, in place, including a two million bpd reduction agreed on last year and voluntary cuts of 1.66 million bpd announced in April.