State-owned Kuwait Gulf Oil Company (KGOC) plans to increase its oil production capacity to 350,000 barrels day (b/d) from the Divided Zone with Saudi Arabia by 2015.

The plan is part of the 2030 strategy set by KGOC’s parent company, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), according to Hashim al-Rifai, KGOC’s chairman and managing director, the local Kuwait Times reports.

The company will also produce almost 400 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) of non-associated gas by 2020.

KGOC operates in the Divided Zone shared by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia through the Al-Khafji Joint Operations Company (KJO), along with Aramco Gulf Operations, a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco. In the first half of 2011, KGOC made profits of KD754m ($2.7bn) on the back of the company’s share of average daily production at 251,000 b/d of crude. Al-Rifai says he expects profits from the second half of 2011 to reach KD742m based on average production of 247,000 b/d for the period.

Kuwait plans to increase its total crude oil production to 4 million b/d by 2020. The bulk of the increase will come from state-owned upstream operator, Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) at 3.65 million b/d.