Kuwait Energy, the independent oil and gas producer, is on track to lift its oil production to 137,000 b/d in 2017, Fitch Ratings says in a report.
“We expect the company’s Iraqi assets to start coming on-stream over the next 12 months, which is positive for the company’s upstream diversification,” Fitch Ratings says. “We forecast Kuwait Energy’s total production should reach 50 million b/d in 2017.”
Kuwait Energy produced 26.8 million barrels in the first quarter of 2015. In 2014, Kuwait Energy’s oil production came from three countries – Egypt (76 per cent), Yemen (14 per cent) and Oman (10 per cent).
The company has stakes in four Egyptian assets. Its operations in Yemen, which produced an average of 4.5 million b/d in 2014, have been put on hold since the civil war erupted in March 2015.
Kuwait Energy’s proved and probable reserves were 671 million barrels of oil equivalent at the end of 2014. More than 90 per cent are located in Iraq.
Kuwait Energy is accelerating the development of greenfield Block 9 in Iraq which is expected to start producing this year.
“Siba, Kuwait Energy’s greenfield gas project in Iraq, has been delayed beyond the original launch date in the second half of 2015due to contracting issues,” Fitch Ratings says. “In April 2015, Egyptian state-owned Petrojet was awarded the Siba engineering, procurement and construction contract for $185 million. We now expect Siba to start full-scale production in the second half of 2016, while two existing wells currently produce nearly 50 million cubic feet of gas per day.”