São Paulo – Kuwait announced this Thursday (24) the discovery of a new oil and gas field in Al-Jathathil, west region of the country. Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), the state-owned oil company, said that the discovery represents a significant addition to the national reserves of oil and gas and to the Kuwaiti productivity. The information was published by Kuwait News Agency (Kuna).
Jamal Abdelaziz Jaafar, KOC’s CEO, told Kuna that preliminary analyses of the underground signal that the field presents high economic viability. The company is performing tests and believes the volume of oil and gas extracted will double until the end of these assessments.
According to Kuna, KOC is implementing an action plan with established goals until 2030, with the purpose of strengthening the country’s position as a large oil producer, in addition to secure the domestic supply of by-products.
The announcement occurs in a moment of downtrend for oil prices. According to news agency Reuters, the barrel again dropped to below USD 40 in London this Thursday and is pointing to the steepest weekly depreciation in two months. Among the reasons for this performance, says the agency, are the build up of inventories of the commodity in the United States and the dollar appreciation against other currencies.
Kuwait has around 102 billion barrels in proved oil reserves, Reuters reported based on data from the department of information of the Unites States’ energy sector.
The national output, according to Reuters, is around 3 million barrels per day, but the country plans to increase extraction to 4 million barrels per day until 2020.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
