Other stories: World’s 10 largest petrochemicals companies | Oil industry giants: ADNOC | Oil industry giants: Saudi Aramco | Top 10 MENA Region mega projects | Top 10 billion dollar oil deals of the summer | 2009’s winners and losers in the oil industry | 10 events in oil’s history that shook the world | Top 10 Gulf mega projects | Top 10 largest publicly traded oil companies | World’s 10 largest oilfield services companies | World’s 10 largest oil and gas contractors
The Kuwaiti minister for oil has said that the Gulf state’s ambitious plans regarding increasing its oil output to 4 million barrels per day (bpd) have been put back a decade until 2030.
Reuters reported that Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah said that the reason behind the 10-year delay was a lack of “technical know-how” and that it would need to call on the expertise of international oil companies to reach output targets.
The country’s failure to renew service agreements with supermajors such as Chevron and BP has been cited as a major cause of concern in Kuwait. Chevron recently closed its office in Kuwait City due to a lack of work in the country.
Most of Kuwait’s oilfields are mature and without advanced oil recovery techniques the country will struggle to reach its planned capacity of 4 million bpd.
Advanced oil recovery techniques such as steamflooding are being successfully carried out by Chevron in the Neutral Zone between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Kuwait’s oil output was 2.25 million bpd in September according to a Reuters survey.
