Kuwait Oil Field, World's 2nd Largest Needs IOCs

Production from the world’s second-largest oil field in Kuwait may decline without the help of international oil companies to boost crude output, a member of Kuwait’s Supreme Petroleum Council said.

Kuwait, which pumps about 2.2 million barrels a day of oil, has failed to renew service agreements with several international oil companies, including BP PLC and Chevron Corp., raising concern about the future output from the country’s largest fields.

Kuwait’s Burgan field, the world’s second-largest oil field after Saudi Arabia’s Ghawar field, supplies a big slice of the country’s current production. Many of Kuwait’s fields have been in operation for 60 years.

The greater Burgan field has a capacity, estimated at 1.4 million to 1.5 million barrels a day of oil and “that was forecast to be sustained for more than 10 years with the help of international oil companies,” said Imad Al Atiqi of the Supreme Petroleum Council, the body in charge of the country’s oil policy, in a recent interview with Zawya Dow Jones.

“But now without this expertise, I don’t suppose this current production rate will be effectively sustained for more than five years,” he added.

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