MOSCOW (MRC) - Kuwait Petroleum Corp expects to spend over USD500 billion as it boosts its crude oil production capacity to 4.75 MMbpd in 2040, the national oil firm said on Wednesday, outlining ambitious growth plans for the next two decades, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.
"KPC is expected to spend USD114 billion in capex over the next five years and an additional USD394 billion beyond that to 2040," Chief Executive Nizar al-Adsani told an oil industry conference.
Kuwait's current oil production capacity is around 3.15 MM bpd. It revealed the plan to lift capacity to 4.75 MMbpd early last year. The figure would exceed the current output of Iraq and Iran, OPEC's second and third biggest oil nations, whose production was 4.4 million and 3.8 million bpd respectively in December.
Iraq and Iran plan to raise output steeply in the coming years to compete with OPEC leader Saudi Arabia, which produces around 10 MMbpd and has capacity of over 12 MMbpd. However, Iraq and Iraq are running far behind their targets to expand output because of infrastructure constraints, red tape and in the case of Iran, the threat of Western sanctions.
The move by Kuwait to expand capacity signals a willingness among OPEC producers to fight for market share in the long term as global oil demand rises and as the organisation faces competition from Russia and two fast-emerging oil superpowers, the United States and Brazil.
Adsani also told the conference that KPC intended to lift domestic oil refining capacity to 2.0 MMbpd by 2035, while ensuring maximum offtake of domestic heavy oil production and taking into consideration the need to meet local energy demand.
MRC