Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) plans to spend KD22.4bn ($78.2bn) during the five years leading up to 2015, a senior spokesman for the energy giant tells MEED exclusively.

In an email to MEED Mohamed al-Shatti, office manager for KPC chief executive officer Saad al-Shuwaib, says 13 December reports from an official state media outlet and international media that Kuwait’s oil minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah had set KPC’s projects spending programme to 2030 at KD25bn were wrong.

In April, Jamal al-Nouri, then head of planning at KPC, told MEED that the company’s spending programme had been set at KD24bn, then around $82bn, to 2014 (MEED 3:4:2009).

“The KD25bn mentioned by his excellence the oil minister was a preliminary figure for the capital expenditures for the coming five years up to 2014-2015, which is now finalised to be around KD22.4bn,” al-Shatti says.”Al-Nouri was also reflecting forecasted capital expenditures for a five years period and not up to 2020 or 2030.”

According to MEED research, KPC plans to have spent around $4bn on contract awards alone in 2009, KD1.15bn at current exchange rates, largely explaining the difference between Al-Nouri’s March figures and KPC’s latest budget.

According to Al-Nouri, the company planned to spend KD11.2bn on upstream projects, KD12bn on downstream infrastructure, KD209m on petrochemicals projects, and KD712m on undisclosed projects up to 2014. Sources close to KPC say that the split between sectors will be similar for the following five years.

Al-Shatti’s clarification marks the second time that KPC has had to amend remarks made by the oil minister. In October Sheikh Ahmad told official state and international media outlets that the government had pushed back a planned 1 million barrel a day (b/d) oil production boost by ten years to 2030.

KPC refuted this statement, and told MEED that it still wants to produce 4 million b/d of oil by 2020, as was originally planned (MEED 7:10:2009).