Kuwait Oil Co. said it has discovered “huge commercial amounts” of light oil and associated gas in an offshore field, marking a “turning point” in its efforts to explore offshore hydrocarbons.
The Al-Nukhida field, east of the Gulf state’s Failaka Island, has initial estimated reserves of about 2.1 billion barrels of light oil and 5.1 trillion standard cubic feet of gas, or 3.2b barrels of oil equivalent, in the Manageesh strata, state-owned KOC said on Sunday.
A plan will be developed to start actual production from the field as soon as possible, said the company, which is responsible for Kuwait’s energy exploration and production.
Kuwait is OPEC’s fifth-biggest producer, with a current output of about 2.48m bpd. It aims to boost capacity to 4m bpd by 2035.