New oil, gas reserves discovered in Kuwait

Large commercial quantities of hydrocarbons have been found in the Al-Jlaiaa offshore field by the state-run Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), and further discoveries are anticipated in the region.

According to the state-run Kuwait News Agency, the anticipated reserves inside the 74 sq km region include 600 billion standard cubic feet of associated gas and 800 million medium-density barrels of oil.

The announcement comes after the discovery in July 2024 of 3.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent in the Al-Nokhatha field.

In an effort to locate new hydrocarbon deposits, KOC is conducting a comprehensive exploratory survey project that spans more than 6,000 square kilometers.

With a production capacity of 2.48 million barrels per day (bpd), Kuwait is the fifth-largest producer in Opec. By 2035, it plans to increase capacity to four million barrels per day.

Khaled Al Sabah, the CEO of Kuwait Oil Tanker Company and managing director of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, stated last week that the nation intends to increase its oil production capacity by as much as 40percent, despite years of sluggish growth and a pessimistic forecast for global demand.

Opec’s oil production curbs and poor performance in several non-oil sectors caused the Gulf state’s GDP to contract by almost 4percent year over year in the third quarter of 2024.

The Kuwait Statistical Bureau has said that a recovery in the economy is anticipated until 2025.