Opec member Kuwait plans to spend more than half a trillion dollars by 2040 to boost its oil and gas output and refining capacity, said a report.

The announcement comes despite Kuwait projecting a budget deficit in the next fiscal year for the fourth year in a row due to low global oil prices, reported Kuwait Times.

State oil giant Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) plans to carry out a number of major projects to boost oil production to 4.75 million barrels per day by 2040, stated the report citing its top executive.

"To achieve these targets, KPC plans to spend $114 billion in capital expenditure over the next five years and an additional $394 billion beyond that to 2040," stated CEO Nizar Al Adsani.
 
Adsani was addressing the gathering at the Energy Strategy Forum held recently in Kuwait City.

"We also plan to raise free natural gas production to 2.5 billion cu ft a day by 2040 from just 200 million cu ft a day currently. Free gas production will reach half a billion cubic feet in April and one billion cubic feet in 2023," he stated.

Kuwait currently has a crude production capacity of around 3.1 million bpd, excluding some 250,000 bpd from the neutral zone with Saudi Arabia which has remained shut since October 2014, said the Kuwait Times report.

It plans to raise its output capacity to four million bpd by 2020, the report added.