Kuwait oil production capacity at 3.1 mbpd

Kuwait's oil production capacity currently stood at 3.1 million barrels per day (bpd), versus its quota which was at 2.2 million bpd, its oil minister told a conference yesterday.

Sheikh Ahmad Al Abdullah Al Sabah said that the world's fourth-largest oil exporter would like to see more technical service agreements signed with international companies to develop oilfields in the Kuwait. "We have about one million bpd spare capacity," he said.

Oil prices at around $75 to $90 per barrel would make investment in most projects viable, Sheikh Ahmad said.

He said global oil demand over the next five years would grow five million bpd, putting annual demand growth at about one million bpd, he said. China and India were contributing to the growth dynamo from Asia, Sheikh Ahmad said.

Kuwait ships most of its exports to Asia. It pumped around 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, according to a Reuters survey.

Kuwait Petroleum Company's strategic objective was to reach one billion cubic feet per day (cfd) of gas production by 2016, he said.

Kuwait continued to focus on boosting oil capacity to four million bpd from three million bpd by 2020, and sustaining the higher capacity level for 10 years, he said.

"We are targeting 3.5 million barrels per day by 2015 and four million (bpd) by 2020 and try to sustain it to 2030," he said. The Gulf Arab country was sitting on more oil than previously thought, not just the Burgan oilfield, Sheikh Ahmad told Reuters in an interview on Sunday. Kuwait holds about eight per cent of all the world's oil reserves, he said.

Last week, a Kuwaiti official said Greater Burgan, the world's second-largest oilfield, was bigger than past estimates had indicated.

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