Kuwait itself contains an estimated 99 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, around 8 percent of the world total, and around 1,600 producing oil wells. The Saudi-Kuwaiti Neutral Zone (also known as the "Divided Zone") area, which Kuwait shares with Saudi Arabia, holds an additional 5 billion barrels of reserves, half of which belong to Kuwait, bringing Kuwait's total oil reserves to 101.5 billion barrels. Most of Kuwait's oil reserves are located in the 70-billion barrel Greater Burgan area, which comprises the Burgan, Magwa and Ahmadi structures. Greater Burgan is widely considered the world's second largest oil field, surpassed only by Saudi Arabia's Ghawar field, and has been producing oil since 1938. Kuwait's Raudhatain, Sabriya, and Minagish fields have large proven reserves as well, with 6 billion, 3.8 billion, and 2 billion barrels of oil, respectively. All of these fields have been producing since the 1950's. They generally contain medium to light crude oil with gravities in the 30o-36o API range. The South Magwa field, discovered in 1984 to the west of Burgan, is estimated to hold at least 25 billion barrels of light crude oil with a 35o-40o API gravity. In September 2003, Kuwait announced as much as 1 billion barrels of very light oil had been found in western Kuwait at the Kara al-Marou field. And in October 2003, Kuwait announced a new discovery of light crude oil (42.6o API) at Sabriya.
Current Oil Production
Kuwaiti oil output is divided about equally between shallow wells and high-pressure wells producing up to 10,000 bbl/d each from the deep, "Marrat" structure which runs north-south through the country and contains an estimated 20 billion barrels of oil in place. The bulk of Kuwait's oil production capacity is located in the southeastern onshore Greater Burgan field, whose Burgan, Magwa, and Ahmadi structures have production capacity of around 1.6 million bbl/d. Kuwait's other main producing fields include the northern fields of Raudhatain (220,000 bbl/d of production capacity, with higher "surge" capacity) and Sabriya (95,000 bbl/d of production capacity, with plans to raise this to 200,000 bbl/d); the southwestern fields of Minagish and Umm Qudayr (200,000 bbl/d); Abdali, Bahra and Ratqa (50,000 bbl/d) in the north; and Kuwait's share of the Saudi-Kuwaiti Neutral Zone (270,000 bbl/d). Overall, around two-thirds of Kuwaiti oil production comes from the southeast of the country, with about one-fifth from northern Kuwait and about one-tenth from the west.
On January 31, 2002, an explosion and fire at an oil-gathering center near Kuwait's northern Raudhatain oil field killed four workers and injured seventeen, while cutting the field's oil and gas output sharply. The explosion, which reportedly was caused by a leak at a major oil pipeline, knocked out three critical gathering centers (the 280,000-bbl/d GC-15, 120,000-bbl/d GC-23, and 200,000-bbl/d GC-25), an electrical substation, and a natural gas booster station (BS-130). Production at Raudhatain was quickly restored to around 300,000 bbl/d by the end of February 2002, but further repairs were required on GC-15 to restore the rest. The facility reopened in January 2005, with repairs costing around $250 million. SK Corporation of South Korea was awarded a contract in May 2005 for construction of ten additional gathering centers, as well as other associated infrastructure. The $1.2 billion project is scheduled for completion in mid-2007.
Crude Oil Exports
Kuwait exports the majority of its oil (over 60 percent) to Asian countries such as Japan, India, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. Other oil exports go to Europe and to the United States, which averaged 250,000 bbl/d of Kuwaiti oil imports during 2004. This compares to the peak of 353,000 bbl/d (4.1 percent of U.S. oil imports) reached in 1993. Kuwait's single export blend ("Kuwait Export") has a specific gravity of 31.4oAPI (a typical medium Mideast crude), and is considered sour with 2.52 percent sulfur content. Around 90 percent of Kuwaiti crude oil is sold on term contracts, with the price of Kuwaiti crude oil tied to Saudi Arabian Medium (for western customers) and a monthly average of Dubai and Oman crudes (for Asian buyers). 
Kuwait has completed major renovations of Mina al-Ahmadi, the country's main port for the export of crude oil, virtually destroyed during the Gulf War. Kuwait also is planning a $900 million expansion at the port in order to add storage capacity and increase export capacity in conjunction with plans for expanded oil production (see below) in coming years. Besides Mina al-Ahmadi, Kuwait has operational oil export terminals at Mina Abdullah (repairs completed in September 1992), Shuaiba (restored by late 1996) and at Mina Saud. A new terminal is planned for BubiyanIsland, which will handle increased production from northern and western Kuwait under "Project Kuwait" (see below).