Kuwait has launched a project to reverse a decline in production at its giant Burgan oilfield nearly 80 years after it was brought on stream, according to the local Alseyassah newspaper.

Almost the same size as the island of Bahrain, the 780 square km Burgan contains around 70 billion barrels of extractable crude oil, equivalent to nearly two-thirds of the Gulf emirate’s oil reserves of about 101 billion barrels.

Burgan is the world’s second largest oilfield after Saudi Arabia’s Ghawar.

The field in southeast Kuwait was pumping more than 2 million barrels per day (bpd) before falling to around 1.7 million bpd due to ageing.

The state-owned Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), which manages the Opec member’s upstream sector, has approved a project for the development of Burgan, Alseyassah reported, citing unidentified KOC sources. 

The aim is to boost production capacity at Burgan by 10 percent, the newspaper said.

Sheikh Nawaf Al-Sabah, CEO of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation – which oversees the emirate’s hydrocarbon industry – said last month that Kuwait’s oil production capacity exceeds 3 million bpd. Investment would boost that to 4 million bpd by 2035, he said.

A large part of the increase would come from Burgan and another 350,000 bpd from the Neutral Zone, which Kuwait shares with neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

Kuwait last year reported that it had made a “giant” oil discovery with estimated reserves of 3.2 billion barrels.

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