Halliburton has signed a $597mn contract with Kuwait Oil Company to explore for oil offshore Kuwait, Bloomberg reports.

This comes as the nation looks to hit 4mn barrels per day (bpd) of production by 2020. Kuwait Oil will reportedly drill six exploratory wells in the first phase of the project, using two rigs.

KOC CEO Emad Sultan estimated that Kuwait’s offshore area could add 100,000bpd of production. It currently has a production capacity of 3mbpd, excluding fields in the Neutral Zone, shared with Saudi Arabia, which are not currently producing.