Pumping up the volume: in Kuwait
Kuwait primes output pumps
Opec producer Kuwait is pumping at around 2.5 million barrels per day of crude and aims to boost capacity to 3 million bpd in the first half of next year, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) boss Saad al-Shuwaib said.
Kuwait is sticking to the production target of 2.53 million bpd set by Opec and has about 200,000 bpd of spare capacity, Shuwaib told Reuters.
"We are producing around 2.5 million bpd, at the quota," he said in an interview with the news agency.
"We have a little spare capacity in case it's needed...we hope by the first half of 2009 to reach 3 million bpd."
Kuwait's informal Opec output target is 2.53 million bpd, although a Reuters survey found the Gulf Arab state pumped at 2.61 million bpd in July.
Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia boosted its output to the fastest rate in 27 years, and well above its Opec target, to help meet rising demand and tame runaway oil prices.
Kuwait is on course to meet its long-term capacity target of 4 million bpd in 2020 despite political hurdles at home, spiralling costs for oil projects and a tight market for contractors, Shuwaib said.
"This target is achievable," he said. "We're not really worried that we will not reach this number."
Among the projects to raise capacity is the controversial Project Kuwait, which should finally be discussed by parliament in the next session due to convene in October, Shuwaib said.
"This time I am sure Project Kuwait has to make it to the floor," he said. "It has had full discussion in the past at committee level."
The plan to boost oil output from northern fields with the help of international companies was first proposed over a decade ago, but has never made it past parliamentary committee level due to opposition from some MPs to the involvement of foreign companies in oil and gas production. Kuwait's fields are off-limits to foreign investors.
Another component of Kuwait's plan to raise capacity is a new round of technical service contracts with international players.
Kuwait has missed a self-imposed July target to sign a deal with US supermajor ExxonMobil to boost heavy oil output, but still hopes to sign this and other contracts by the end of 2009, Shuwaib said.
Other companies negotiating for contracts are Shell, Chevron and BP.
Kuwait has yet to finalise negotiations with Qatar for the imports of liquefied natural gas, Shuwaib said. It wants to begin imports of LNG from Qatar in the summer of 2009 to help fuel power generation to meet peak demand.
Output from non-associated gas fields in the north of the country has reached 175 million cubic feet per day, Shuwaib said. Condensate and light oil output from the same fields stood at 50,000 bpd, he added.
Kuwait aims to boost non-associated gas output to 600 MMcfd by 2012 and to 1 billion cubic feet per day by 2016.