Another oil & gas discovery of ‘great importance’ springs up offshore Kuwait

Kuwait’s state-owned E&P company Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) has confirmed a large hydrocarbon discovery at an offshore field in the country’s territorial waters, bolstering its expectations of discovering more offshore oil and gas to boost the country’s energy arsenal.

While disclosing the discovery of large commercial quantities of hydrocarbons in the Al-Julaia marine field off the coast of Kuwait, KPC and its subsidiary, Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), explained that the new find came after the discovery of the Al-Nokhatha field in July 2024.

While disclosing that its subsidiary has made a second offshore discovery, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation underlined: “This discovery represents a significant milestone, adding hydrocarbon resources of great importance to the national economy.

“It reaffirms the success of our offshore exploration strategies, with further development phases planned to support Kuwait’s energy production goals by 2040.”

These discoveries fuel the firm’s hopes of unearthing more hydrocarbons during its exploration efforts to enhance Kuwait’s position on the region’s oil and gas scene. The Al-Julaia 2 exploration well is said to have shown promising results.

The field, covering over 74 square kilometers, has been estimated to hold around 800 million barrels of medium-density oil and 600 billion standard cubic feet of associated gas, equivalent to 950 million barrels of oil equivalent.

The firm has put the wheels into motion to implement a three-dimensional exploratory survey project, encompassing over 6,000 square kilometers to glean insight into the area, aiding in decision-making to move forward with pinpointing reservoirs to reach the production stage.

The company wants to ramp up its production capacity to meet the goals of its 2040 strategy. KOC signed an offshore drilling services contract with Halliburton in July 2019 for the provision and management of drilling, fluids, wireline and perforating, well testing, coring, cementing, coiled tubing, and all offshore logistical services.

Halliburton said it would provide two offshore rigs and supply vessels for the project in the Arabian Gulf within Kuwait’s territorial waters. While the expected start date for the first rig was in July 2020, the second rig was due in January 2021.

As the drilling campaign ran into delays, Kuwait postponed the work and was on the verge of starting its first offshore drilling activities in 2022, three years after signing the deal with Halliburton, as explained by the CEO of the KPC, Sheikh Nawaf Saud Al-Sabah, during the Qatar Economic Forum in 2022.

Moreover, KPC confirmed that one of the rigs was already in Kuwait and preparing to start its upcoming work. This jack-up is said to be COSL’s Oriental Phoenix rig, while COSL’s Oriental Dragon rig was expected to leave China in mid-June 2023 to be transported to Kuwait for a three-year contract with Kuwait Oil Company.

The 2017-built rig is a Friede Goldman JU2000E design jack-up, which was constructed at China Merchant Heavy Industries (CMHI).