Total consumption of primary energy in Kuwait rose by 430,000 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) between 1995 and 2018, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) said in a study released on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the study shows that Kuwait is increasingly depending on natural gas to secure power and water.
Overall consumption of primary energy in Kuwait increased from approximately 278,000 BOEs per day in 1995 to 711,000 BOEs in 2018, at an annual growth of 4.2 percent. Comparing the consumption of primary energy in Kuwait with that in other OAPEC’s member states, the study showed hike of Kuwait’s quota of the overall consumption from five percent in 1995 to 5.2 percent in 2018. Proportions of the overall domestic consumption of this energy in Kuwait, per annum, exceeded those of the population growth, thus consumption per capita rose from 51.9 BOE in 1995 to 58.2 BOE in 2018. Annual growth of consumption of fossil fuel resources exceeded yearly rates of the output, thus the domestic consumption as compared to the production climbed by 12.1 percent in 1995 to 21 percent in 2018.
Semi-complete dependence on fossil fuel, namely oil and gas, with token contributions by other resources, constituted the main features of raw energy consumption, where oil and natural gas constituted 99.7-100 percent of the mixture of consumed primary energy between 1995 and 2018. Natural gas consumption in Kuwait constituted 52.9 percent of the consumed energy in 2018, as compared to 46.8 percent for the oil. Local consumption centered in sectors such as power, water desalination, which account to 51.7 percent of the overall consumption of the primary energy resources in 2016. Oil came second in terms of consumption of the primary energy, with a quota of 32 percent in 2016, followed by transports 15.3 percent.
Households’ consumption stood at only 1.1 percent. The study showed that share of the natural gas of the total consumed fuel in the electricity and water desalination rose from 20 percent in 2005 to 55 percent in 2016. Compared with the rising dependence on natural gas, the crude oil share declined from 56 percent in 2005 to 38 percent in 2016. Share of the crude oil in the total consumed fuel in the sector of power generation and water desalination declined from 23 percent in 2005 to three percent in 2016.
The proportion of the population growth between 1995 and 2018 stood at 3.6 percent; meanwhile, the primary energy consumption grew by 4.2 percent during the same period. Therefore, the study concludes that a one percent population growth leads to a 1.2 percent growth in energy consumption.
