Kuwait's Energy Industry

Kuwait: Reconfiguring the Downstream

Kuwait holds the fifth-largest oil reserves in the world, amounting to an estimated total of 101.5 billion barrels. The country’s petroleum export revenue accounts for more than half of its GDP and 95% of government income. Despite the global reduction in crude oil prices, Kuwait announced that it would spend USD 155 billion between 2015-2020 on 523 projects through it National Development Plan. USD 40 billion is earmarked for upstream developments and another estimated USD 40 billion for downstream projects. Kuwait Oil Company, the upstream subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, has set the ambitious target of raising its current production rate from 2.9 million bopd to 4 million bopd by 2020.

To accomplish this goal, Kuwait plans to implement EOR techniques and advanced technologies such as solar-powered turbines and steamflooding at heavy oilfields. In March 2014, GlassPoint Solar, producer of the USD 600-million, 1-GW concentrated solar power plant at the Miraah site in Oman, opened its first offices in Kuwait. Prior to the halt in operations at the Partitioned Neutral Zone, Kuwait Gulf Oil Company along with Saudi Arabian Chevron were engaged in efforts to launch a large-scale steamflood project to raise production at the Wafra oilfield. Also anticipated in 2018 is the country’s Lower Fars Heavy Oil Development Programme at the Ratqa oilfield.

To boost downstream capacities, Kuwait’s Clean Fuel Project will refurbish and upgrade facilities at the Mina Al Ahmadi refinery, built in 1949, and the Mina Abdullah refinery, built in 1958. To be completed in 2018, the expanded and combined infrastructure will increase output from 736,000 bopd to 800,000 bopd. In addition to works at the Clean Fuel Project, Kuwait’s Al Zour refinery is expected to come on line by 2019 with a capacity of 615,000 bpd, increasing Kuwait’s total refining capacity to 1.4 million bpd.

The Oil & Gas Year Kuwait 2019 is the most up-to-date and comprehensive report on the country’s hydrocarbons industry. The publication provides in-depth articles to highlight the entire value chain of the country’s hydrocarbons industry, from E&P to the midstream, downstream, power generation, oilfield services, finance and engineering and construction industries.