Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Mar. 7 -- Kuwait's Energy Minister Sheikh Ahmad Fahd Al-Sabah announced Mar. 6 the discovery of large reserves of natural gas and light crude oil in the country.
"We can say that Kuwait has entered the world of natural gas," Sheikh Ahmad said, adding that the nonassociated gas was discovered largely in the Sabriya and Um Niga fields.
"According to initial results of the study, there are potential reserves of approximately 35 tscf of free gas. These quantities exist in large areas that, in geographical size, equal the Greater Burgan field," Sheikh Ahmad said.
He said exploration for gas is continuing, and he expressed optimism that further discoveries would be made, particularly in offshore fields near the Bay of Kuwait.
The minister also announced that Kuwait Oil Company has discovered reserves estimated at 10-13 billion bbl of light crude oil in the Bahra and Rawdatain fields.
He said the new discovery of crude oil increases the country's current reserves of 90 billion bbl by 10% and that further discoveries are possible.
"Now we are dealing with only 31 reservoirs out of 105 reservoirs in the country. We will discover more oil reserves in the future," he said.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
