Kuwait to raise oil output capacity to 4.75m bpd by 2040

OPEC-member Kuwait plans to raise its oil production capacity to 4.75 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2040 as part of a strategy to expand its downstream investments, Kuwait state news agency reported a Kuwaiti oil official as saying on Tuesday.

Nabil Bouresli, the managing director of international marketing at Kuwait Petroleum Corp, said those investments included adding refining and petrochemical production in Kuwait and abroad.

Kuwait’s current oil production capacity is around 3.15 million bpd, and it has long said it plans to raise this to 4 million bpd by 2020 and maintain this level to 2030.

The country has cut exports by 146,000 bpd, Bouresli said, as part of a deal between OPEC and non-OPEC producers to lower production to prop up prices.

It lowered exports by 4 million barrels in January and would reduce them by the same amount in February, he added.

Eleven of the 13 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are cutting crude output by about 1.2 million bpd from Jan. 1, while Russia leads 11 non-OPEC producers that have agreed to cut output by half that amount.

A ministerial committee meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC producers is scheduled in Kuwait for March 26. This will be the second meeting after ministers met in Vienna in January to monitor compliance to the agreed cuts.