KUWAIT CITY, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) gained about 78 billion U.S. dollars in the year 2006-2007, rising 8.5 percent compared to the previous year, the state-run Kuwait News Agency reported on Monday.

    Acting Chief Executive Officer Saad Al-Shoueib of the KPC announced the number when speaking at the Third Forum of Oil Sector Executives, hosted by KPC for its own officials and those of its branch companies.

    Saad said KPC was looking forward to implementing a strategic administration which consisted in giving the subsidiary companies more prerogatives to run their own affairs more freely.

    Regarding the issue of oil exploration in the year 2006-2007, he said natural gas and oil were discovered in the Sabriya oil well, whose total capacity was estimated at 7.4 million cubic feetand 3,300 barrels of high quality light crude oil.

    He added that some very light crude oil was discovered in the Bahra 29 oil well, whose average production is expected to be 5850barrels per day with a gas production of 4 million cubic meters while in the Umm Al-Rouss area, additional oil was discovered producing some 4,600 barrels of crude per day.

    A new oil field was discovered in the Areifjan area, where "some of the best very light crude oil deposits were discovered along with a moderate gas quantity. But the oil capacity was estimated at 5,000 barrels per day.

    Kuwait, which pumps some 2.4 million barrels per day (bpd) and has about 10 percent of global crude reserves, plans to raise its production capacity to 4 million bpd by 2020.

    The Gulf emirate's oil decision-making is governed by the Supreme Petroleum Council and the cabinet and is implemented by national oil conglomerate KPC and its affiliated companies.