Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) is set to allocate Kd1.2bn to its exploration drilling programme through to 2030, reported Reuters, citing KOC deputy CEO for exploration and drilling Khaled Al-Mulla. 

This investment is part of a broader plan to invest Kd9.8bn in drilling and maintaining up to 6,193 wells by the end of the decade. 

Last month, Kuwait’s Oil Minister, Tariq Al-Roumi, told local newspaper Al Qabas that the country’s crude oil production capacity is currently at 3.2 million barrels per day (mbbl/d), the highest assessment in more than a decade. 

Earlier this month, the minister announced a new strategy for state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) to raise overall oil production capacity to 4mbbl/d by 2035. 

The latest investment aligns with this objective to increase oil production capacity and to maintain this level until 2040, said the report. 

KOC is projected to contribute 3.65mbbl/d towards this target, with the remaining output expected to come from a shared zone with Saudi Arabia. 

The Kuwait Government is also set to prepare infrastructure for the Durra gas field as part of its plan to increase hydrocarbon production, according to Reuters. 

Al-Mulla said that modern technology including AI tools made deeper, less accessible reservoirs economically viable. 

For example, the Mutriba field in north-west Kuwait began production in 2025, decades after its discovery, he added. 

Al-Mulla further said that the company has so far achieved a 100% success rate in its first offshore exploration phase, which involved drilling six wells. 

This will be followed by 18 more wells in the second phase, and the company expects to reach offshore production capacity of around 150,000 barrels per day by 2035. 

However, this was “likely to rise after recent promising offshore discoveries”, he added. 

Recently, KOC announced a new natural discovery in the Al-Jazah offshore natural gas field. Initial tests at the Jazah-1 well indicate production exceeding 29 million cubic feet per day of natural gas.