KUWAIT CITY - Agence France-Presse
Kuwait will start importing between 500 million and 750 million cubic feet of LNG daily from Qatar by sea next year, a top oil official said yesterday.

"In 2009 we will definitely import LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) by ships which will operate in summer," the chief executive officer of national oil firm Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC) Saad al-Shuwaib said.

Import facilities will be ready by the end of the year, Shuwaib told a two-day conference organized by MEED magazine.

He said most of the imports will be used to supply power and water desalination plants when demand rises sharply during the summer months in the desert state.

The two Gulf states had been planning to have the gas piped through Saudi Arabia but the kingdom refused to allow this because of political differences with Qatar.

Kuwait, the fourth largest OPEC producer, is rich in oil but short on natural gas despite a huge discovery in 2006.

The emirate currently produces around one billion cubic feet of associated natural gas, but that amount is insufficient to meet increased demand for power plants and water desalination.

Kuwait in March 2006 announced the discovery for the first time of 35 trillion cubic feet (one trillion cubic meters) of free natural gas and about 10 billion barrels of light oil in its northern oilfields.

First commercial production of 175 million cubic feet (five million cubic meters) of free gas and 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) of light oil and condensates is slated to start next month.

Deputy chairman for gas at Kuwait Oil Co., Mohammad Hussein, told the conference there is great potential for increasing free gas reserves as new discoveries have been made and will be announced soon.

"We are still working on assessing the discoveries. We also plan to drill in new areas, especially offshore," he said.

The second gas production phase, between 2008 and 2011, stipulates an increase in production to 600 million cubic feet (17 million cubic meters) daily and 165,000 bpd of light oil and condensates, Hussein said.

The third stage will see production upped to one billion cubic feet (28.4 million cubic meters) daily of free gas and 350,000 bpd of light oil and condensates by early 2015, he said.

Kuwait ultimately plans to increase its production to 1.5 billion cubic feet (42.6 million cubic meters) under a fourth phase for which no timeline has yet been set, Hussein said.

  The third stage will see production upped to one billion cubic feet (28.4 million cubic meters) daily of free gas and 350,000 bpd of light oil and condensates by early 2015, he said.

  Kuwait ultimately plans to increase its production to 1.5 billion cubic feet (42.6 million cubic meters) under a fourth phase for which no timeline has yet been set, Hussein said.