By Rania El Gamal
KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) said on Monday it was in talks with Shell (L:RDSa), BP (L:BP) and Total (PA:TOTF) about signing technical service deals and aimed to finalise them by the end of the year.
"It will be for heavy oil and greater Burgan and north Kuwait (oilfields). Bids will be issued next week, mid-October, and we expect to sign by the end of the year," Chief Executive Nizar Adsani told Reuters.
Kuwait Oil Co (KOC), the upstream arm of KPC, wants to increase crude output and develop some of its oilfields including Burgan, the world's second largest.
The plan is part of efforts to meet the OPEC member state's target of boosting its oil production potential to 4 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2020.
Kuwait's oil production is now 2.950 million bpd and capacity stands at 3.2 million bpd, Adsani said.
Oil production will go up by 200,000 bpd by December 2016 and mostly be from north Kuwait, he said.
Adsani also said Kuwait aims to increase its oil and gas drilling rigs from the current 90 to 140 by the end of 2016 and that those added will all be onshore.
The OPEC member will start exploration and drilling for offshore oil and gas by the first quarter of 2017.