Since 1946, when Sheikh Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah turned a silver wheel to commence the flow of the first Kuwaiti exports, KOC has striven to modernize and expand

IN the vanguard of the government’s plans to produce 4 million barrels of petroleum a day is the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), the subsidiary of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) responsible for oil and gas production.

Formed in 1934, KOC manages 10% of the world’s oil proven reserves. A successful partnership between the company and international oil companies will be the key to the success of Project Kuwait, and KOC is preparing by undertaking a major upgrade of infrastructure.

Hundreds of miles of underground crude oil and gas pipelines are being replaced. Upgrading and rehabilitation work is under way at oil gathering stations—where impurities are removed from the crude—and gas booster stations.

KOC has signed contracts worth almost $2 billion with South Korea’s SK Engineering & Construction Company and the British-based company Petrofac. Petrofac has also been contracted to supply full maintenance services.

According to Farouk Al-Zanki, KOC’s Chairman and Managing Director, the contracts will provide a completely new infrastructure and add significantly to the company’s production capabilities. They will also help to meet another of KOC’s priorities by providing its workers with a safer working environment.

FAROUK AL-ZANKI Chairman and MD of KOC

Over the next couple of years, KOC also plans to expand its storage and export facilities at Mina Ahmadi, Kuwait’s main port for crude oil exports. Storage capacity for an additional 11.4 million barrels of crude is to be created.

“The modernization project will raise the production capability in the south and east of Kuwait from the present average of 1.5 million bpd to a level of 1.7 million,” says Mr. Al-Zanki. “The new export facility will increase our export capability to a sustained level of 3 million bpd.”

Advanced techniques are being introduced to discover new reserves of oil and to exploit the capacity of existing wells as fully as possible. They include the use of horizontal drilling to reach pockets of oil lying adjacent to the original finds.

The reopening of GC15, Kuwait’s largest oil gathering station, in the northern Rawdatain region in January, has boosted production capacity by 380,000 bpd to 2.8 million bpd. The station was the scene of an explosion and fire in 2002, in which four people died. A gas booster station and a power station were also destroyed. The rebuilding project, including new and improved technology, was carried out by South Korea’s SK Engineering & Construction working with maintenance teams at KOC.

KOC itself has been undergoing internal reorganization and a drive to increase the skills and safety of its employees.

“We needed to change the way we conducted our business,” says Mr. Al-Zanki. “We have been making a significant effort to reshape the company. Changes have been made to the organizational structure, new processes have been developed, and we are in the process of implementing very effective training programs.”

Emphasis on health and safety has been strengthened considerably since the accident at GC15. Mr. Al-Zanki stresses that the new company culture is dedicated to providing a safer work environment for the employees and to giving them the confidence to reach the target for increased production capacity. To conclude, he points out that KOC now considers safety as a number one priority.