Mubasher: Kuwait will produce 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) of heavy crude oil by December 2019 to be increased to 85,000 bpd by 2020/2021, then 110,000 bpd by 2030/2031 and 430,000 bpd by 2040/2041, sources told Al Anba newspaper.
Production of heavy crude accounts for 10% of Kuwait’s 4 million bpd production by 2040, they added, noting that the cost of heavy oil production was up to five-fold the cost of conventional oil production.
The Gulf nation seeks to reduce this cost of production in the coming years, they said, noting that output costs had been on the rise due to the growing number of drilling rigs which are meant to reach thousands of wells, with each well producing about 150 to 200 bpd.
It is worth noting that the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) has completed more than 90% of the construction operations of the heavy crude oil project in the South Ratqa Field with 930 wells being prepared for operation.
Initially, the produced heavy crude oil is planned to be exported to international markets. In the future, it will be sent to Kuwait’s Al Zour Refinery, after its completion, in order to produce granulated sulfur for operating electric plants in the Gulf nation.
