Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), responsible for the exploration, production and transportation of crude oil in Kuwait, has signed a $16 billion lease-and-lease-back agreement involving its entire domestic and export pipeline network with a consortium of international infrastructure and institutional investors led collectively by Blackstone, Brookfield and KKR.
KOC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), the state-owned corporation overseeing Kuwait’s oil and gas sector.
As part of the transaction, a newly formed Kuwaiti-incorporated new joint venture (JV) will lease from KOC the usage rights to all of its 13 pipelines, spanning a total of approximately 320 km of Kuwait’s pipeline network.
Under the terms of the agreement, the JV will grant back to KOC the exclusive use, operational and maintenance rights in the pipeline assets for over a 20-year period, in exchange for a volume-based tariff.
KOC and the consortium, comprising Blackstone, Brookfield and KKR, will establish the new JV, with KOC holding a 51 per cent majority stake and the consortium collectively holding the remaining 49 per cent, with equal stakes and on equal terms.
KOC will continue to maintain full ownership and operational control of the pipeline network.
The JV will not impose any restrictions on Kuwait’s refining throughput or production volumes, all of which remain subject to decisions made by the State of Kuwait.
The JV is expected to generate upfront proceeds of $7.85 billion for KOC upon closing, supporting KPC’s capital expenditure plans, including KPC’s target of 4 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil production capacity by 2035, and supporting Kuwait’s broader efforts to diversify sources of capital and deepen engagement with global investors.
The commitment represents the largest foreign direct investment in Kuwait’s history.
Its scale reflects the quality of KOC’s asset base, the strength of KPC’s operational stewardship, and the enduring appeal of Kuwait as an investment destination.
The agreement ranks among the first major inward investments in the Arabian Gulf region since the onset of recent tensions, and it bears testament to Kuwait’s resilience and agility, and the sustained confidence of global institutional investors in Kuwait and KPC.
Beyond its immediate proceeds, the JV is intended to serve as a catalyst for deeper participation by global investors in the national economy, in keeping with KPC’s development plan and Kuwait’s long-term diversification agenda.
Commenting on the development, Shaikh Nawaf Saud Al-Sabah, Deputy Chairman and CEO of KPC, said: “Project Peregrine represents the largest foreign direct investment in Kuwait’s history and a defining milestone for our country’s economic development. It delivers on the commitment announced by the Prime Minister, Shaikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, at the Kuwait Oil and Gas Show (KOGS) in February 2026 to attract world-class international investors into Kuwait’s strategic infrastructure while preserving full national ownership and operational control.
Joe Bae and Scott Nuttall, Co-CEOs of KKR, said: “This investment reflects our confidence in Kuwait and our commitment to providing long-term capital in support of strategic infrastructure, and we look forward to deepening our partnership and identifying further opportunities to invest alongside Kuwait in the years ahead.”