KUWAIT CITY, Oct 29: The Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) will invest 1.2 billion Kuwaiti dinars ($3.92 billion) in its exploration drilling program through 2030 as part of a broader strategy to boost production capacity, the company’s Deputy CEO for Exploration and Drilling, Khaled Al-Mulla, said in an interview with Reuters.

Al-Mulla explained that the exploration investment is part of KOC’s record 9.8-billion-dinar budget, earmarked for drilling and maintaining up to 6,193 wells by the end of the decade. The plan underscores Kuwait’s commitment to increasing its oil production capacity to 4 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2035, and sustaining that level until 2040, compared with 3.2 million bpd announced last month.

Kuwait Oil Company is expected to contribute 3.65 million bpd to the total capacity, with the remainder produced from the Neutral Zone shared with Saudi Arabia, Al-Mulla said.

He noted that the integration of modern technologies, including artificial intelligence, has made previously uneconomical, deeper reservoirs viable for production. “The Mutriba field in northwest Kuwait, for instance, began production in 2025 — decades after its discovery,” he added.

Since July 2024, KOC has made three major offshore oil and gas discoveries, achieving a 100 percent success rate in its first offshore exploration phase, which included six wells. A second phase is set to follow, involving 18 additional wells, with the company expecting to reach an offshore production capacity of about 150,000 bpd by 2035.

“That figure is likely to rise after recent promising offshore discoveries,” Al-Mulla noted, emphasizing that the new investments mark a significant step toward ensuring Kuwait’s long-term energy security and sustainable production growth.