State-upstream operator Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) plans to invest an estimated $46bn over the next five years to raise the Gulf country’s sustainable oil production.

Most of the planned 2013-17 spending will be directed toward projects in the north of the country, said Mazen al-Sardi, deputy managing director for technical services at KOC, at the MEED Kuwait Energy & Infrastructure 2013 conference in Kuwait City.

“We will spend on several capital schemes in the next five years,” said Al-Sardi.

This will include three major oil and gas gathering centres to be built in northern Kuwait. Tenders for the deals had been expected in early 2012, but are expected to be launched in 2013. The three projects could be worth a combined total of about $1.5bn.

Kuwait’s oil fields are connected to 26 gathering centres, which serve as collection locations for crude produced at several wells connected by flowlines. The centres deal with initial treatment through the separation of associated gas and removing salt.

The latest gathering centre was completed by South Korea’s SK Engineering & Construction in April 2010 under a $623m contract signed in March 2007.

Farouk al-Zanki, chief executive officer (CEO) of state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), which operates the country’s oil sector, told delegates earlier that Kuwait aims to lift sustainable oil production capacity by 1 million barrels a day (b/d) from 2020 to 2030.

Kuwait’s crude production capacity stands at about 3.3 million b/d. The Oil Ministry has previously said it plans to increase production to 4 million b/d, with 3.65 million b/d coming from KOC and the remainder from Kuwait Gulf Oil Company’s (KGOC’s) operations in the Divided Zone with Saudi Arabia.