Drilling at Kuwait’s Durra Field to Start this Year

Drilling at Kuwait’s Durra Field to Start this Year
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Drilling at Kuwait’s Durra Field to Start this Year

Drilling at Kuwait’s Durra Field to Start this Year

Procedures for drilling and construction work on the Durra gas field will begin later this year after engineering studies wrap up later this summer, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation’s (KPC) CEO Sheikh Nawaf Saud Al-Sabah told Reuters on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait affirm they jointly own rights to natural resources in Durra while Iran claims a stake in the Gulf's gas field.

Sheikh Nawaf said the company plans to invest 7 billion Kuwaiti dinars ($22.92 billion) on its upstream operations over the next five years.

He also said that KPC would reach a production capacity of 3.2 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of this year and expects to increase that to 4 million bpd by 2035.

Earlier, the CEO of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation told CNBC Arabia that production operations in offshore reservoirs require seven years. “But we expect to start production from Al-Nokhatha field within a shorter period of time,” he said.

The CEO noted that the oil and gas discovery at Al-Nokhatha field supports Kuwait’s strategy to increase its capacity to 4 million bpd by 2035.

On Wednesday, State-owned Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) announced preparations to begin digging six new exploratory wells in the country’s territorial waters, which contains large hydrocarbon resources.

The announcement came after KPC said on Sunday it had made a “giant” oil discovery in the Al-Nokhatha field, with oil reserves estimated at 3.2 billion barrels.



Libya to Offer Production Sharing Contracts under New Oil Bid Round

A view shows El Feel oil field near Murzuq, Libya, July 6, 2017. REUTERS/Aidan Lewis/File Photo
A view shows El Feel oil field near Murzuq, Libya, July 6, 2017. REUTERS/Aidan Lewis/File Photo
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Libya to Offer Production Sharing Contracts under New Oil Bid Round

A view shows El Feel oil field near Murzuq, Libya, July 6, 2017. REUTERS/Aidan Lewis/File Photo
A view shows El Feel oil field near Murzuq, Libya, July 6, 2017. REUTERS/Aidan Lewis/File Photo

Libya is set to offer 22 areas for oil exploration and development in its first such bidding round in more than 17 years, oil officials said on Monday, adding that deals will involve production sharing agreements.

The new bidding round, announced on March 3, comes as Africa's second-largest oil producer and member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) seeks to raise its oil output.

National Oil Corporation (NOC) Chairman Massoud Suleman told an event for potential investors in London that areas on offer are split equally between onshore and offshore.

Libya's current crude production has reached about 1.4 million bpd, 200,000 bpd short of its pre-civil war high, according NOC. It aims to raise output further to 2 million bpd, Reuters reported.

Foreign investors have been wary of putting money in Libya, which has been in a state of chaos since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Disputes between armed rival factions over oil revenues have often led to oilfield shutdowns.

NOC Chairman Suleman told Reuters on the sidelines of the event that the round has already generated a lot of interest from international oil companies since it was launched in early March.

In January, Abdulsadek told Reuters the country needed between $3 billion and $4 billion in investment to reach output of 1.6 million bpd.

The bidding will involve acreage in some of the most prolific basins in the country, including the Sirte, Murzuq and Ghadamis basins as well as offshore Mediterranean, oil minister Khalifa Abdulsadek told Monday's event.

A presentation by other NOC officials showed the areas on offer will be under a Production Sharing Agreement model, replacing the more stringent EPSA IV model which Libya adopted under previous bid rounds and which offered fewer returns to investors.

NOC expects to sign the new contracts between November 22-30.