Kuwait spending 26bn dinars to boost oil output

Kuwait’s current capacity is 3.15 million barrels per day and its oil production is 2.8 million bpd.

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Kuwait is spending 26 billion Kuwaiti dinars (Dh326.3bn) to boost its crude output capacity to 4 million barrels per day (bpd) and its refining capacity to 1.4 million bpd by 2020, a Kuwaiti oil official said.

Kuwait's current crude oil capacity is 3.15 million bpd and its oil production is 2.8 million bpd, said Mohammad Al Farhoud, the managing director of planning at the state-run Kuwait Petroleum.

“We are embarking on three gathering centres right now and we have a huge programme of drilling. We are sure we are going to reach 4 million bpd in 2020,” said Mr Al Farhoud at a conference of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (Oapec). Kuwait is building a new refinery with a capacity of 615,000 bpd to help boost its total refining capacity to 1.4 million bpd. The facility is expected to begin operations in 2019.

Separately, the state-run Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC), plans to offer to the public by the middle of next year stakes in petrochemical joint ventures with Dow Chemical, which the US firm is divesting, said Mr Al Farhoud, who is also the chairman of PIC.

Dow announced last month that it plans to reduce its stakes in all its Kuwait joint ventures as part of a US$7 billion to US$8.5bn divestiture plan. Its investments in Kuwait include a 42.5 per cent stake in Equate, a joint venture with PIC and two other firms, Boubyan Petrochemical and Qurain Petrochemical Industries. Dow’s other joint ventures include Kuwait Olefins and Kuwait Styren.

dalsaadi@thenational.ae

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