Local News

Traditional production unfit for half of Kuwait's oil reserves

Published Date: May 15, 2007

KUWAIT: More than half of Kuwait's oil reserves will not be produced through cheap traditional methods, Deputy Director General of the Kuwait Institution for Scientific Research (KISR) Dr. Nader Al-Awadhi said yesterday. Kuwait's oil reserves are estimated at about 95 billion barrels, among the biggest worldwide. Most production, if not all, is being produced through traditional methods, Al-Awadhi told a KISR workshop on "Managing Carbon Dioxide for Improving Oil Production" that started yesterday.

He expected that the traditional methods would produce 45 billion barrels, but could not be used for the rest (i.e. 50 billion barrels). Thus, emerges the necessity of developing new feasible environment-friendly methods for producing heavy oils, he said adding that oil production operations over the past years had focused on light oil.

"With the rising rates of consumption, light crude oils are being used up at higher rates", Al-Awadhi said noting that the heavy oil reserves worldwide are six times light oils.

Production of heavy crude oils is a difficult process that requires fresh techniques and is very costly compared to light crude oils. Initial production of heavy oils hit 2 to 10 times the reserves, the KISR Deputy DG pointed out.
He said it is possible to increase production through different techniques, the best of which was thermal methods, that could raise the production rate to 50-60 percent. Carbon dioxide emissions are the problem with such methods.

The workshop discusses the techniques of isolating carbon dioxide, transferring it and injecting it in underground reservoirs as well as the economic feasibility of using it for improving the production of crude oil. -- KUNA