Kuwait is seeking to attract foreign oil companies to help develop its emerging offshore oil and gas sector, the country’s prime minister said (Kuwait News Agency, 03/02/2026).
Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) is pursuing a plan to invite international oil companies to support its upstream subsidiary, Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), in developing recently announced offshore oil and gas discoveries. Although Kuwait has been producing oil for more than 80 years, it only started offshore exploration in recent years. KOC drilled its first offshore exploration well in 2023 and has since made three discoveries from the first three wells drilled.
The Jazah discovery, announced in late 2025, is estimated to hold around 28 bcm of gas and more than 120 mbl of condensate. Earlier, KOC announced the Al-Jlaiaa discovery, estimated to contain approximately 800 mbl of medium sweet crude. The Nokhatha discovery is assessed at 2.1 Gbl of light oil and around 144 bcm of gas (Argus Media, 03/02/2026).
“International oil companies are invited to invest in developing the Nokhatha, Jazah and Jlaiaa discovered fields to achieve optimum sustainable production levels and maximise reservoir recovery,” the prime minister said. Kuwait’s offshore resources are “just as prolific as the onshore,” but there is currently no infrastructure in place to exploit the offshore discoveries that have been made, KPC’s chief executive said.
Kuwait is several years into an ambitious strategy to raise crude oil production capacity to 4 mb/d by 2035, from around 3 mb/d currently, and to increase non-associated gas output to around 21 bcm/year by 2040, up from about 8 bcm/year currently.
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