KUFPEC focused on strategic long-term projects

Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co. (KUFPEC) is currently focusing on strategically long-term projects involving production and excavation, CEO Sheikh Nawaf Saud Al-Sabah said on Tuesday. KUFPEC is not focusing on small projects that result in marginal returns "like a 1,000 or 5,000 barrels per day" but exceed this to "significant production with the probability of large future excavation prospects," he told reporters. There is a strategic link between the company and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) amid their focus on investment in projects that allow a space for the production and excavation of oil and gas and the acceptance of new technologies for Kuwait, he added. "Our goal is not only production," Sheikh Nawaf said, speaking at the fringes of the 2014 Kuwait Oil and Gas Summit, which is gathering leaders from the Kuwait and international oil and gas sector over two days. KUFPEC managed to acquire two stakes of Royal Dutch Shell in Western Australia which allow the state company to benefit from large quantities of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for domestic needs of electricity, he said. Sheikh Nawaf was talking about KUFPEC's purchase of the Shell-owned assets in late January, worth USD 1.135 billion, for an eight percent interest in the Wheatstone-Iago joint venture and 6.4 percent in the Wheatstone liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Western Australia. On projects KUFPEC is currently pursuing, he noted to "an increase of production from 80,000 to 100,000 barrels per day by the end of the year, through large steps we are undertaking," adding that the move is being fully backed by KPC. He went on to highlight what he viewed was the main challenge of the lack of expert manpower, noting that the company is working on increasing the number of local engineers, providing them with jobs inside and outside of Kuwait.