KUWAIT'S OIL INDUSTRY SLOWLY RECOVERING

A little more than 1 year after the Iraqi blitz, Kuwait's ravaged petroleum industry is slowly returning to a semblance of normalcy.

Kuwait is producing 150,000 b/d of crude, Oil Minister Homoud A. Al-Rqubah said during an inspection tour of two oil fields south of Kuwait City.

OPEC News Agency (Opecna) reported Al-Rqubah visited Magwa oil field, about 30 km south of Kuwait City, and Ahmadi oil field, 10 km farther south, where he watched firefighters kill the last blazing well in both fields.

In addition, Kuwait Petroleum Corp.'s war-damaged Mina al-Ahmadi refinery is almost ready to resume processing at a throughput of about 110,000 b/d. KPC says throughput is to rise to about 170,000 b/d in the second half of this month.

PRODUCTION, WELL CONTROL

Al-Rqubah said Kuwait will produce as much as 400,000 b/d by the end of 1991. The country hopes to double that volume by the end of 1992.

"Our target is 800,000 b/d by the end of 1992," he told reporters.

Opecna said Kuwait was capable of producing 2 million b/d prior to eruption of the Middle East crisis in August 1990.

According to news agency reports, Opecna said, of the more than 700 blazing or damaged wells in Kuwait, 295 have been brought under control.

Ahmadi with 89 wells and Magwa with 148 are part of Greater Burgan field and were considered the nerve center of Kuwait's oil industry before the gulf crisis.

Greater Burgan holds 663 wells.

Technoimpex of Hungary is the latest company to sign a firefighting contract with Kuwait Oil Co. A 30 man team is scheduled to start work on the $10-20 million contract by the middle of this month.

The Kuwait Investment Office owns a 10% interest in Technoimpex, the 12th company to join Kuwait's well control campaign.

MINA AL-AHMADI REFINERY

Before Iraqi invaders heavily damaged the 370,000 b/d plant, Mina al-Ahmadi was one of the most sophisticated refineries in the world.

Resumption of refining in Kuwait will require most of the crude currently being exported. Current production will be absorbed as refining operations build through September.

In the short term, KPC does not expect processing capacity to exceed 170,000 b/d. That means crude oil exports can resume later in the year if the fourth quarter crude production target is achieved.

KPC expects a small surplus of products when processing resumes. First products to be available on international markets will be naphtha and kerosine, followed by gas oil and fuel oil in the fourth quarter of the year.

Tentative figures from KPC place yearend product exports at about 60,000 b/d.

Kuwait exported two tankerloads of crude in July and August.

The vessels carried more than 3 million bbl.