Kuwait and heavy oil resources

Petroleum-rich Kuwait needs to develop heavy oil resources in the Mideast country, which has been looking for ways to keep up long-term production, said a top engineer with Kuwait Oil Co. Kuwait holds about nine per cent of the world´s oil reserves, much of which is higher-quality light and medium crude. Although a significant fraction of heavy oil resources are also present in Kuwait.

"We are actually reaching the maturity stage, where our production will start to decline," said senior reservoir engineer Badar Al-Matar. "We have to maintain that by exploring new resources, which is maybe heavy oil, and enhance our recovery with new technologies and techniques."

The country has set oil production targets of four million barrels per day by 2020. The energy sector accounts for nearly half of Kuwait´s gross domestic product and 95 per cent of all export revenues and government income, according to the CIA World Factbook.

What the Kuwaiti needs to support future production growth is more hands-on experience in heavy oil, Al-Matar concluded.

Read more: Oilweek