Belated progress on Kuwait's upstream ambitions
KOC is poised to deliver on offshore and gas plans after delays stretching back more than a decade
Government-owned Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) signed a contract in early July with a US oilfield services titan to carry out the country's first offshore drilling programme since the 1980s, after more than three years of repeatedly declaring the relaunch of maritime exploration to be imminent. Successive delays have similarly beset long-held plans to develop Jurassic gas reserves in the north of the country—a derogation made especially egregious by the country's chronic shortage of the resource. However, with a shortlist of contractors for the next phase now finalised, tenders are anticipated by the end of the quarter. KOC, the domestic upstream operating subsidiary of state oil conglomerate Ku

Also in this section
6 February 2025
Policy initiatives will take time to reverse declining output, and restoring investor confidence is far from certain
6 February 2025
This premier event is poised to address the evolving technology and investment demands of North America’s thriving chemical and pharmaceutical sectors
5 February 2025
Growing appetite for LNG reinvigorates discussions between China and Myanmar, but civil war may prevent talk becoming action
5 February 2025
With new capacity, buyers must navigate sanctioned Russian crude, a return to traditional OPEC barrels and diversity of supply