He argued that optimal planning for increasing domestic oil production should be done every three years, not over decades, especially since increasing oil production capacity must be a gradual process. He indicated that major international companies have vast experience and expertise in exploration, advanced technologies and the ability to navigate digital transformations, which guarantee the extraction of oil from challenging reservoirs in the shortest possible time. He stated that one of the important reasons for involving foreign companies is to address the declining production in some existing oil fields due to age. He cited the declining production in the Burgan field as an example, indicating this field alone used to produce about 70 percent of the output of Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), but has now dropped to less than 60 percent. “Therefore, the involvement of international companies is essential to address the difficulties hindering the smooth operation of the Burgan field, taking into account that traditional private contracting companies find it difficult to resolve this issue.

Most other countries readily engage international oil companies to increase production,” he asserted. He said there are no obstacles preventing the Kuwaiti oil sector from dealing with international companies, similar to other oil-producing nations, in order to attract such companies. He added that increasing Kuwaiti crude oil production not only benefits the State budget, but will also contribute to increasing the refining capacity of local refineries—Mina Al-Ahmadi, Mina Abdullah and Zour—as well as the overseas refineries in which KPC has varying stakes like Nghi Son in Vietnam, Duqm in Oman and Milazzo refinery in Italy. He stated that the unavailability of crude oil at certain times led to a decline in refining rates at Zour Refinery. He commended the government’s recent statements regarding attracting foreign investment companies to Kuwait, particularly those specializing in the oil sector. He emphasized the importance of utilizing the expertise of Kuwaiti nationals with specialized oil experience to develop the Kuwaiti oil sector, considering these retired experts have the experience surpassing that of foreign consultants. He stressed that the cost of hiring foreign consultants is a huge burden on the budgets of KPC’s subsidiaries.