LOC18:04
15:04 GMT
KUWAIT, Sept 16 (KUNA) -- The Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) said here on Wednesday it would launch an offshore drilling project soon in order to boost its crude oil production.
Addressing a symposium organized by the Ministry of Oil, the KOC's planning chief Bader Al-Attar said: "The company will start offshore discovery and digging within a couple of years' time."
The KOC is seeking to increase its crude production by 700,000 barrels per day at the onshore and offshore area, he added.
Al-Attar noted that the company has a strategic goal to boost its output of free gas by roughly one billion cubic feet per day as planned according to discovery operations, and to make use of high technology in the improvement and development of oil exploration and production.
He also reiterated the oil sector's strategy to boost oil output up to four million barrels per day by 2020, and free gas output up to two billion cubic feet per day by 2030.
On his part, the KOC's investment chief Mohammad Al-Abdeljaleel said the company has recently completed several oil and gas projects in north Kuwait.
Concerning future projects in north Kuwait, he said the company would set up three new production centers, a new water center and a water injection and treatment center.
In west Kuwait, the company has finished projects in the field of oil gathering, acid gas treatment and refining, Al-Abdeljaleel pointed out. (end)
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