KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait Petroleum Corp. expects to spend more than $500 billion as it boosts its crude oil production capacity to 4.75 million barrels per day in 2040, the national oil firm said on Wednesday, outlining ambitious growth plans for the next two decades.
“KPC is expected to spend $114 billion in capex over the next five years and an additional $394 billion beyond that to 2040,” Chief Executive Nizar Al-Adsani told an oil industry conference.
Kuwait’s current oil production capacity is around 3.15 million bpd. It revealed the plan to lift capacity to 4.75 million bpd early last year.
The figure would exceed the current output of Iraq and Iran, OPEC’s second and third biggest oil nations, whose production was 4.4 million and 3.8 million bpd respectively in December.
Iraq and Iran plan to raise output steeply in the coming years to compete with OPEC leader Saudi Arabia, which produces around 10 million bpd and has capacity of more than 12 million bpd.
However, Iraq and Iraq are running far behind their targets to expand output because of infrastructure constraints, red tape and, in the case of Iran, the threat of Western sanctions.
The move by Kuwait to expand capacity signals a willingness among OPEC producers to fight for market share in the long term as global oil demand rises and as the organization faces competition from Russia and two fast-emerging oil superpowers, the US and Brazil.
Al-Adsani also told the conference that KPC intended to lift domestic oil refining capacity to
2 million bpd by 2035, while ensuring maximum offtake of domestic heavy oil production and taking into consideration the need to meet local energy demand.
KPC recently began a pre-feasibility study to lift refining capacity inside Kuwait by almost 300,000 bpd, Al-Adsani said without elaborating. Capacity was estimated at 936,000 bpd in 2015, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
The company intends to expand into downstream derivative and specialty petrochemical products at facilities inside and outside the country, Al-Adsani added.
Meanwhile, non-associated natural gas production in Kuwait is to increase to 2.5 billion cubic feet per day (cfd) in 2040, from 0.5 billion cfd expected in April 2018 and 1 billion cfd by 2023, Al-Adsani said.
As part of efforts to reduce emissions of harmful gases, KPC’s future power plants will be gas-fired, although it will use renewable energy when that makes commercial sense, he added.
Kuwait Petroleum to spend over $500bn by 2040
Kuwait Petroleum to spend over $500bn by 2040
US pump prices surge as Iran war upends global energy supply
- Fuel prices jump over 10 percent as oil prices surge
- Analysts predict further price rises due to market conditions
MARIETTA/NEW YORK : US retail gasoline and diesel prices are soaring as the US-Israel war with Iran constrains oil and fuel exports, which could be a political test for President Donald Trump’s Republican Party ahead of midterm elections in November.
Fuel prices jumped more than 10 percent this week as oil rose above $90 a barrel, its highest in years, adding pain at the pump for consumers already strained by inflation.
Trump on Thursday shrugged off higher gasoline prices in an interview with Reuters, saying “if they rise, they rise.”
The president had vowed to lower energy prices and unleash US oil and gas drilling during his second term, but much of his tenure has been marked by volatility and uncertainty amid shifts in policies like tariffs and geopolitical turmoil.
The US is the world’s largest oil producer. It is a major exporter but also imports millions of barrels a day since it is the world’s largest oil consumer.
As of Friday, the national average prices for regular gasoline stood at $3.32 a gallon, up 11 percent from a week ago and the highest since September 2024, according to data from the motorists association AAA. Diesel was at $4.33, up 15 percent from a week ago, surging to the highest since November 2023.
Midwest, south feel the pinch
US motorists in parts of the Midwest and the South, including states that supported Trump, have seen some of the steepest increases in fuel costs since the conflict in Iran started.
In Georgia, a swing state, average retail gasoline prices rose 40.1 cents a gallon over the past week, according to fuel tracking site GasBuddy.
Andrenna McDaniel, a health care insurance worker in South Fulton, Georgia, said she was surprised to see prices skyrocket overnight.
“They jumped up so quickly,” she said on Friday, adding that she does not agree with the war at all.
McDaniel, a Democrat, said that for now she is only driving for the most important things, and feels lucky that she works from home so she does not have to drive as much as other people do. Georgia voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 election.
Trump voter Richard Soule, 69, a US Air Force veteran and a retired firefighter, said a little pain at the pump is worth Trump’s efforts to protect America.
“When President Trump went in there and bombed out their nuclear, and they just thumbed their nose at it, I believe he did the right thing at the right time,” Soule said on Friday as he filled up his Ford F-150 truck in Marietta, Georgia.
Other states, including Indiana and West Virginia have seen prices rise by 44.3 cents and 43.9 cents, respectively.
Prices may rise further
More pain may be on the way, analysts said, as oil prices continue to trend upward. On Friday, US oil futures settled at $90.90 a barrel, up nearly $10 and the biggest single-day rise since April 2020.
“Given current market conditions, the national average price of gasoline could climb toward $3.50 to $3.70 per gallon in the coming days if oil continues rising and supply disruptions persist,” GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan said.
The disruptions in the Middle East and the Strait of Hormuz, a key trade conduit, have boosted demand for US oil abroad, which in turn has driven up prices for domestic refiners too.
“The US has weaned itself off of its dependence on Middle Eastern crude, but obviously Asian refineries, and to a lesser extent, European refineries have not,” Denton Cinquegrana, chief oil analyst with OPIS. “That’s what you’re seeing happen in the spot market, because the demand for US exports rise, and so the price rise.”
Seasonal factors could add further pressure. Gasoline prices typically go up in the spring and peak in the summer due to higher gasoline demand and production of summer-blend gasoline, which is more costly to produce. Diesel fuel saw an even more aggressive jump since Iran began retaliating against US and Israeli strikes, significantly disrupting shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
Global diesel inventories have remained in tight supply due to heavy demand for heating and power generation during a prolonged winter in the US and other parts of the world and a structural tightness of refining capacity. Sticker prices of everything from food to furniture go up when the cost of diesel goes up, as the fuel is mainly used in freight transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, and global shipping, analysts said.
“In a world where buzzword seems to be ‘affordability’, that is certainly not going to help,” Cinquegrana said.
