Kuwait oil unit output capacity to top 250,000 barrels per day

A major oil gathering centre at this northern Kuwait oilfield will be able to produce more than 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) by the end of April, state-run Kuwait Oil Co (KOC) said on Monday. KOC official Emad Sultan told reporters on a tour of the facility 100 km north of the capital that output would rise from about 100,000 bpd now after the expected completion at the end of April of a gas booster unit and a 117 km (73 mile) pipeline.
The pipeline will increase to three the total number of lines to carry crude from three gathering centres in north Kuwait including two such units in the sprawling Raudhatain oilfield to Mina al-Ahmadi export sea terminal in the south.
Opec nation Kuwait, which controls nearly 10 percent of global oil reserves, pumps around 2.5 million bpd of oil. The reopening of gathering centre No 15, or GC 15, earlier this year has increased the country's total petroleum production capacity to over 2.8 million bpd.
"We will reach more than 250,000 bpd (at GC 15) when the gas booster station and export pipeline No 3 are finished at the end of April," said Sultan, who is KOC's team leader of production operations in northern Kuwait.
"Actual production will be according to demand," he added.
Previously officials had said GC 15 production could be ramped up to 200,000 bpd in May when the gas unit works end.
The centre, which separates crude from associated gas and water, reopened only in January after major repairs at a total cost of $300 million following a devastating fire in 2002 which killed four KOC personnel. It was also hit by a small fire in early March which injured two workers but left little damage.
Other KOC officials at the centre told Reuters GC 15 has been running at rates of up to 140,000 bpd in recent days, but noted that the average production was about 100,000 bpd.
One of 22 such units scattered at oilfields across the tiny Gulf Arab state, GC 15 has a total design capacity of up to 380,000 bpd but such units are rarely pushed to produce at full tilt for prolonged periods.
It is fed by a total of 165 oil wells at Raudhatain.