By: AGBI

Kuwait has brought a complex oilfield onstream nearly 16 years after the asset was discovered and development started.

The 230 sq km Mitribah field in northwest Kuwait began production in June and was officially inaugurated by oil minister Tariq Al-Roumi on Thursday.

The field is operated by the state-owned Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), the Gulf country’s upstream investment arm, and is expected to pump between 80,000 and 120,000 barrels per day of light crude, KOC’s CEO Ahmed Al-Aidan said.

“Mitribah has long been considered a major challenge, and today it has become a true success story, demonstrating what can be achieved when ambitious vision meets firm determination and effective execution,” Al-Aidan said after the inauguration.

“It is a complex field and posed a big challenge to developers because of the presence of high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide gas of up to 40 percent. This has delayed production,” he added.

Al-Aidan said the field, now part of KOC’s productive assets, provides a significant boost to the company’s strategic plans. 

“This step supports Kuwait in achieving its strategy of reaching oil production capacity of 4 million bpd by 2035,” he said.

Commercial output at Mitribah began on June 15 after several wells were connected to KOC’s production facilities. 

The field is situated in a previously undeveloped area lacking infrastructure. Light crude with commercial potential was first discovered there in 2009.

The average time from oilfield discovery to production is usually seven years, according to a 2021 study by World Bank economist David Mihalyi of over 25,000 petroleum fields discovered since 1950.

Kuwait, a founding Opec member, has a sustainable oil output capacity of around 2.6 million bpd and sits atop proven crude deposits of 101 billion barrels, the world’s sixth largest.