Kuwait Oil And Gas Profile
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Introduction
- As a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Kuwait was the world's 10th largest petroleum and other liquids producer in 2013. Despite being the second smallest in land area among the OPEC member countries, Kuwait exports the fifth-largest volume of crude oil and condensates
- Kuwait's economy is heavily dependent on petroleum export revenues, which account for nearly 60% its gross domestic product and about 94% of export revenues
History
- 1975 - Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), was taken over by the Kuwaiti government
Regulation
- The government of Kuwait owns and controls all development of the oil sector. The Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) oversees Kuwait's oil sector and sets oil policy. The SPC is headed by the Prime Minister. The rest of the council is made up of six ministers and six representatives from the private sector, all of whom serve three-year terms, and are selected by the Emir. The Ministry of Petroleum supervises all aspects of policy implementation in the upstream and downstream portions of the oil and natural gas sectors.
Upstream
Reserves
- According to the Oil & Gas Journal (OGJ), as of January 2014, Kuwait had an estimated 102 billion barrels of proved oil reserves, roughly 6% of the world total and sixth among all countries. Additional reserves are held in the Partitioned Neutral Zone (PNZ), which Kuwait shares on a 50-50 basis with Saudi Arabia. The PNZ holds 5 billion barrels of proved reserves, bringing Kuwait's total oil reserves to 104.5 billion barrels. Kuwait's oil reserves include approximately 13 billion barrels of heavy oil, located primarily in northern Kuwait, with other reserves concentrated in the PNZ.
- According to the Oil & Gas Journal, as of January 2014, Kuwait had an estimated 63 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proved natural gas reserves.
Exploration and production
- In 2013, Kuwait's petroleum and other liquids production was approximately 2.8 million barrels per day (bbl/d), including its share of approximately 250,000 bbl/d of oil production from the PNZ. Of the country's 2013 production, approximately 2.6 million bbl/d was crude oil and nearly 200,000 bbl/d was non-crude liquids.
- About half of Kuwaiti crude oil production in 2013 came from the southeast region of the country, largely from the Burgan Oil Field, which has a production capacity of 1.7 million bbl/d.
- Current crude oil production capacity from the northern fields has increased to approximately 700,000 bbl/d
Active Companies
- The Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) manages domestic and foreign oil investments. The Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), the upstream subsidiary of KPC, was taken over by the Kuwaiti government in 1975 and manages all upstream development in the oil and natural gas sectors.
- The Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) controls the downstream sector, while the Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC) is in charge of the petrochemical sector. Export operations are overseen by both KNPC and the Kuwait Oil Tanker Company (KOTC).
- Foreign interests of KPC are handled by the Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (Kufpec), and international upstream development and downstream operations are controlled by Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI).
- The Partitioned Neutral Zone (PNZ) has its own managing companies, separated by onshore and offshore activities. The onshore sector was developed by American Independent Oil Company (Aminoil), which was nationalized in 1977.
- Getty Oil, which was subsumed by Chevron, was brought in to develop onshore PNZ fields Wafra, South Umm Gudair, and Humma. Chevron remains a participant along with KPC, although management of all KPC's PNZ interests has been transferred to the Kuwait Gulf Oil Company (KGOC).
- Offshore, a Japanese company, the Arabian Oil Company (AOC) discovered the Khafji, Hout, Lulu, and Dorra oil fields in the 1960s.
Crude Oils
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Midstream
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LNG
- Kuwait signed supply purchase agreements with Shell and the energy trading company Vitol and received LNG supplies from 2009 through 2013.
- Kuwait took delivery of the LNG at the Persian Gulf's first regasification terminal, Mina al-Ahmadi GasPort, a floating facility that has the flexibility to supply LNG to Kuwait during periods of high seasonal demand.
Downstream
- The OGJ reports nameplate refining capacity in Kuwait at 936,000 bbl/d in 2014.
- This production capacity is derived from three refinery complexes: al-Ahmadi, Abdullah, and al-Shuaiba. All of the refineries are located near the coastline, about 30 miles south of Kuwait City and are owned and operated by Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC).
- The largest refinery, Mina al-Ahmadi, was built in 1949 and has a capacity of 466,000 bbl/d. Mina Abdullah and al-Shuaiba have nameplate capacities of 273,000 bbl/d and 190,000 bbl/d, respectively.
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page revision: 5, last edited: 21 Feb 2015 08:12