Kuwait Oil Company will soon offer contracts for offshore rigs and support services to drill its first undersea wells, as the Persian Gulf nation tries to boost crude output to the highest level in more than four decades. Kuwait is targeting production of 3.165 million barrels a day later this year or in 2017, up from the current 3 million barrels a day, Chief Executive Officer Jamal Jaafar said on Monday at a conference in Kuwait City, Bloomberg reported. He made his comments a day after fellow OPEC member Iraq reported a record level of production and less than a week before some of the biggest oil-producing nations are to discuss freezing output to reduce a glut and shore up prices. “We are trying to make use of the low cost of production in Kuwait,” said Jaafar, whose company is the exploration and production arm of national energy group Kuwait Petroleum Corp. Kuwait and Iraq are among members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that plan to meet with other major producers on April 17 in Doha for talks about a freeze.
