As Kuwait takes steps to reverse the impact of three consecutive years of production capacity declines, it is turning to its third largest crude oil buyer for financial assistance. The Japanese government is organizing a $1bn loan to state energy firm Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) according to leading Japanese business daily Nikkei.

Production capacity from KPC’s primary upstream subsidiary KOC dropped to a 12-year low of 2.63mn b/d for the 2020-21 financial year (MEES, 22 October 2021). An optimistic reading of capacity from the Partitioned Neutral Zone (PNZ) which is shared 50:50 with Saudi Arabia would hand another 250,000 b/d to KPC for a total of around 2.88mn b/d. (CONTINUED - 922 WORDS)