KUWAIT: Kuwait Petroleum Corporation will invite international companies to assist its state-owned unit ⁠Kuwait Oil Company to develop offshore oil and gas discoveries, prime minister, Ahmad Abdullah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, said ⁠at a ‌conference on Tuesday.

The project, which will cover three offshore oil and gas fields discovered in 2025, is expected to raise Kuwait’s production capacity to ⁠4 million barrels per day by 2035, from 3 million bpd currently, the CEO of Kuwait Petroleum, Sheikh Nawaf Saud Al-Sabah, said at a separate news briefing, also at the Kuwait Oil and Gas Show.

He said the state would retain sole ⁠ownership of hydrocarbons.

Gulf governments are stepping ​up infrastructure deals with foreign investors as oil prices, down more than 25% in two years, stay well below ‍levels needed to fund economic diversification. This has spurred Kuwait and other nations in the Gulf to open ​their energy assets to global capital.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that Kuwait was set to launch an oil pipeline network stake sale as soon as February in a deal that could raise up to $7 billion, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.

The pipeline project will help finance Kuwait’s expansion plans in crude oil production, Sheikh Nawaf said, and investor interest was “very strong."

He said Kuwait Petroleum had received commitments from international and local banks amounting to “five times the required sum," but declined to elaborate.

Oil minister Tariq Al-Roumi told Reuters on ⁠Monday he expected tenders for the Durra oil and gas ‌field project, in cooperation with Saudi Arabia, to be launched this year.

Kuwait’s share of production from the jointly managed Neutral Zone with Saudi Arabia exceeds 200,000 bpd, with ‌total output topping ⁠400,000 bpd, Sheikh Nawaf said, "higher than production levels before the fields were shut."

(Reporting by Ahmed Haggagy, ⁠Writing by Ahmed Elimam; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Bernadette Baum)