AL-RAWDHATAIN, Kuwait, 29 March 2005 — OPEC-member Kuwait will boost its crude output by more than 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) when its largest gathering center becomes fully operational next month, an oil executive said yesterday.
“Now Gathering Center 15 (GC 15) produces more than 100,000 bpd. By the end of April, when rehabilitation is completed, we will be able to produce more than 250,000 bpd,” the official, Emad Sultan, told reporters. The center was partly reopened in January, nearly three years after it was shut down because of an explosion that killed four workers, wounded 19 and damaged more than half the facility.
The center’s total production capacity can reach up to 380,000 bpd but Sultan said they will pump between 250,000 and 300,000 bpd, depending on the emirate’s production policy, after two projects are completed in April. The first is a gas booster station to process associated natural gas, and the second is a 117-km (73-mile) pipeline to carry crude oil to the emirate’s main export facility at Al-Ahmadi, south of Kuwait.