Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC) has recorded a resilient operational performance for the 2025-2026 financial year, maintaining steady production and refining throughput despite severe regional geopolitical disruptions.

In its annual report, published last week, the company said it generated a net profit of KWD2.155bn ($6.98bn), while continuing to work towards fulfilling its strategic mandate to achieve a sustainable domestic crude capacity of 4mn barrels per day by 2035.

Domestic upstream arm Kuwait Oil Co. (KOC) sustained an average crude output of 2.72m bpd. This baseline was reinforced by aggressive exploratory drilling, yielding several important discoveries. Most notably, KOC identified the Jazza field, the first offshore gas reservoir located within the Minagish formation, alongside successful onshore probing at the Karaa Al Marou and Adal fields. KOC also expanded its deep-drilling programme across Jurassic reservoirs, completing 57 development wells and setting new daily production records for non-associated gas.

In the Partitioned Neutral Zone (PNZ) shared with Saudi Arabia, KPC’s upstream assets outperformed initial expectations. The Khafji Joint Operations (KJO) delivered 137,000 barrels per day, bolstered by new reserves in the Ratawi formation and the commissioning of the Hout gas facility. Similarly, the Wafra joint venture achieved 89,000 bpd, supported by a 500m-barrel crude discovery in the North Wafra sector.

Further afield, the Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co. (Kufpec) maintained an average output of 83,055 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd). Kufpec also acquired a 20% stake in the Shell-operated Orca project in Brazil, which is projected to deploy a floating production unit capable of 120,000 bpd by 2029.

Downstream operations demonstrated notable flexibility as the group optimised its refining infrastructure to handle increasingly complex crude blends. The Kuwait National Petroleum Co. (KNPC) processed an average of 744,500 bpd across its Mina Abdullah and Mina Al-Ahmadi refineries, yielding 37.85mn tonnes of refined products. Through targeted rationalisation, KNPC also achieved financial savings of $192.5m by the third quarter.

Meanwhile, Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Co. (KIPIC) ramped up throughput at the Al-Zour facility to 422,947 bpd. The complex achieved a major technical milestone by integrating Umm Niqa crude into the Kuwait Heavy Crude blend, sustaining processing rates of 120,000 bpd. KIPIC also commenced exports of low-sulphur aviation turbine kerosene, strengthening its footprint in European markets. In tandem, KIPIC’s LNG import facilities handled 85 cargoes to secure domestic power requirements.