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