Page 11 - MEOG Week 37 2021

MEOG PROJECTS & COMPANIES MEOG

KOC to increase drilling

to hit output target

KUWAIT STATE-OWNED Kuwait Oil Co. (KOC) is plan- of heavy oil. The $400mn contract was reported
ning to drastically increase drilling as part of its to have already been awarded to an international
plan to fulfil its output capacity target of 4mn company, but that it was yet to be signed.
barrels per day by 2040, up from the current 3.1- According to KOC’s original plan, by 2026/27
3.2mn bpd. output from South Ratqa would grow to 120,000
A company source was quoted telling the bpd, rising to 230,000 bpd by 2030/31, with
local Arabic language Aljarida daily that KOC heavy oil from the nearby Umm Niqa field seen
would drill an extra 300 wells per year over “the climbing first to 50,000 bpd and then to 80,000
coming period”, taking the annual total to 700. bpd over the same period.
He said that the drilling campaign would A fourth phase would then see Ratqa’s pro-
come as part of a $6.1bn capital expenditure on duction lifted to 325,000 bpd, while the final
exploration activities over the next five years, phase envisages output from the two fields total-
with ongoing exploration efforts expected to ling 430,000 bpd.
conclude by 2023. Aljarida’s source said that construction is
The source noted that KOC is also intending around 93% complete on the heavy oil facilities
to begin exports of crude oil once production at South Ratqa, with roughly 930 wells having
allows, with current output running at around been drilled to allow for increased production.
60,000 bpd. The comments follow reports in July that
Heavy crude is produced under the Lower KOC planned to drill more than 750 wells in the
Fars Heavy Oil Project which comprises Umm north of the country as it seeks to increase its oil
Niqa and South Ratqa. production capacity, despite shelving plans for
The broader Ratqa asset was discovered in the nearby gas development. In 2020, Kuwait pro-
late 1970s, but efforts to develop the field were duced an average of 2.43mn bpd, having fallen
largely stifled until the UK’s Petrofac was finally to 2.085mn bpd in June last year.
awarded a $4.2bn engineering, procurement & Speaking to Al-Anba, the sources said that
construction (EPC) contract to execute the first KOC had invited three international oilfield
phase in early 2015. This called for combined specialists – Halliburton, Schlumberger and
production of 60,000 bpd by last year. Weatherford, all of the US – to submit financial
Output from the two fields under the project and technical bids for the project. They noted
reached a first phase plateau capacity of 75,000 that there are likely to be several rounds of nego-
bpd following the start of operations in February tiations until agreement is reached on price. In
2020. February, Halliburton won a contract to collab-
Then in September, KOC was reported to orate on expanding digital solutions for the com-
have cancelled a project to drill 11 wells as part pany’s North Kuwait asset.™
of the country’s efforts to expand the production

Week 37 15•September•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P11