22/05/2025 by Thomas Clark
The small but oil-rich Middle Eastern country Kuwait has announced a five-year plan to invest $9–10 billion each year to increase its production capacity.
Shaikh Nawaf Al-Sabah, the CEO and deputy chairman of the country’s state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, said to Arabian Gulf Business Insight (AGBI) that the aim was to get production over 3 billion barrels per day (bpd). He added that this was just part of a longer-term aim to get production to 4 billion bpd by 2040.
According to the latest data from OPEC for April, Kuwait pumped 2.415 million bpd on average. The country is a founder member of OPEC and currently it’s fifth-largest producer after the UAE, Iran, Iraq and, of course, Saudi Arabia. In addition to exporting crude oil, it produces grease and lubricant products and operates petrol stations around the world under the Q8 brand.
To reach the 4 billion bpd mark by 2040, the country will make use of the Partitioned Neutral Zone (PNZ), a neutral sovereignty area between the border of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in which the two countries share petroleum resources. The zone was established in 1922 to resolve a border dispute. The country also made a discovery offshore at the Al-Noukhitha field, with the resources estimated to include 5.1 trillion standard cubic feet of natural gas and 2.1 billion barrels of light oil.
Kuwait can now more flexibly invest in infrastructure thanks to a new law that will enable it to borrow from the debt markets.
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