State-run Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) has announced a significant discovery of commercial hydrocarbon volumes at the Al-Jlaiaa offshore field, with expectations for further discoveries in the region.
The estimated reserves in the 74-square-kilometer area include 800 million barrels of medium-density oil and 600 billion standard cubic feet of associated gas.
This discovery follows a notable find at the Al-Nokhatha field in July 2024, which holds an estimated 3.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent. As part of its ongoing exploration efforts, KOC is conducting a comprehensive survey over an area exceeding 6,000 square kilometers to identify additional hydrocarbon reserves.
Kuwait, the fifth-largest producer within OPEC, currently maintains a production capacity of 2.48 million barrels per day (bpd). The country aims to ramp up this capacity to 4 million bpd by 2035, despite global uncertainties regarding oil demand.
Khaled Al Sabah, managing director of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and CEO of Kuwait Oil Tanker Company, recently emphasized plans to boost oil production capacity by as much as 40%. This announcement comes even as global demand projections remain subdued and growth has been sluggish in recent years.
Kuwait’s economy contracted by approximately 4% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2024, primarily due to OPEC’s oil production cuts and underperformance in some non-oil sectors. However, the Kuwait Statistical Bureau forecasts a recovery in economic activity through 2025.