Thanks to new advances in extraction technologies, the government-owned Kuwait Gulf Oil Company (KGOC), a division of Kuwait Petroleum, is planning for a significant boost in its oil and natural gas output.
Non-associated gas production is set to rise to 400 million cubic feet per day at the end of 2020 and climb to 500 million by the end of the following decade, while oil output should reach 350 million barrels per day in 2015 and stay at that level, more or less, until 2030.
Yet to achieve these goals, equipment isn’t the only thing in need of periodic revision and upgrades, says KGOC’s Chairman and Managing Director, Hashim Mustafa Al-Rifaai. “We need better ways of dealing with our joint partnership. The framework we have for the current agreement is 60 years old, and we both agree it is high time to revise it again with modern norms, better expectations, clarity and transparency.”
Mr. Al-Rifaai is quick to add that this should not be taken as an indicator of divergent viewpoints with KGOC’s partner, the U.S. firm Chevron.
“Working with a partner and not having a single operator is like having two bosses,” he says, but admits that it is easier going when the partners are in complete and emphatic agreement on key issues such as workplace safety and environmental safeguards.
“Those two things are really primary for us. Safety is an absolute must. If it is not safe, you stop work. Safety includes environmental safety as well as protecting the communities that your work impacts on. We spend a lot of money on reducing our carbon footprint, and on conservation; and we are probably the country’s largest net contributor to social welfare organizations caring for the disabled or incapacitated.”
The KGOC chief says that his long-term goal is to leave behind a company that is recognized if not worldwide, at least within the region, as being a role model for how to work with a partner.
“I want to leave an organization that is based on meritocracy,” he says, “I think that has been the major endeavor during my tenure.”
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