Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) plans to invest US$17bn to $24bn in a range of hydrocarbon projects in the coming five years, KOC’s chairman and managing director Sami Al-Rushaid has told KUNA, the state news agency.
The planned projects range from the development of oil and gas facilities such as pipelines, well drilling and pumping stations, to the acquisition of tug-boats and the construction of a hospital, he revealed.
Regarding Kuwait’s oil production, he said the country was committed to its oil output quota specified by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Kuwait produces light crude in addition to 50,000 barrels of petrol gas a day, Al-Rushaid, noting that KOC planned to produce to 60,000 barrels of heavy crude a day from Faris onshore oilfield, north Kuwait, between 2015 and 2016.
As for the current conference, he said it coincided with the mounting local, regional and international challenges created by the global financial crisis.
“These challenges forced the countries to struggle for better financial positions and sustainable development. We, in the oil sector, strive to translate ambitions into viable clear-cut strategies for bringing into full play the role of this vital sector in economic development,” he explained.
KOC’s strategy for 2030 provides that the company must meet its commitments to all sectors of the economy, as well as Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC).
“Kuwait will offer all necessary help for the private sector to play its role in the development projects,” Al-Rushaid revealed.
“The data of the state budgets for FY 2009-2010 and FY 2010-2011 show that the private sector’s contribution to the national economy grows from 25.2% to 45.9%.
“The private sector accounted for KD 1.3 billion, or 45 percent of the value of the oil contracts signed between 2006 and 2009, he went on to say.
The figures reflect the policy of KOC, backed by KPC, for giving the private sector a greater role in the energy industry and taping out into its technical and human resources to bolster up the economic growth, Al-Rushaid explained.
The government action plan for 2009-2014 envisages raising the country’s oil production capacity to 3.3 million barrels a day and the free gas output to 600 million cubic feet. The two-day conference, sponsored by KPC and organized by Commercial Markets Complex Company under aegis of Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Minister of State for Development Affairs and Minister of State for Housing Affairs Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, will come to a close later Sunday.
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