Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) has finalized a significant lease-and-lease-back agreement for its entire domestic and export pipeline network, spanning approximately 320 kilometers, with a consortium led by Blackstone, Brookfield, and KKR. This landmark deal, dubbed Project Peregrine, is set to inject around $7.85 billion in upfront proceeds, marking Kuwait's largest foreign direct investment and supporting KPC's strategic goals, including increasing crude production capacity to 4 million barrels per day by 2035.

Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) has finalized a significant lease-and-lease-back agreement for its entire domestic and export pipeline network, spanning approximately 320 kilometers, with a consortium led by Blackstone, Brookfield, and KKR. This landmark deal, dubbed Project Peregrine, is set to inject around $7.85 billion in upfront proceeds, marking Kuwait's largest foreign direct investment and supporting KPC's strategic goals, including increasing crude production capacity to 4 million barrels per day by 2035.

Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) has finalized a significant lease-and-lease-back agreement for its entire domestic and export pipeline network, spanning approximately 320 kilometers, with a consortium led by Blackstone, Brookfield, and KKR. This landmark deal, dubbed Project Peregrine, is set to inject around $7.85 billion in upfront proceeds, marking Kuwait's largest foreign direct investment and supporting KPC's strategic goals, including increasing crude production capacity to 4 million barrels per day by 2035.

Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) announced that its upstream arm, Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), has signed a lease‑and‑lease‑back agreement with a consortium led by Blackstone, Brookfield and KKR, covering all 13 of its domestic and export pipelines, which span roughly 320 kilometres.

A newly created Kuwait‑incorporated joint venture will acquire the usage rights to the system and then grant back exclusive operational and maintenance rights to KOC for 20.5 years in return for a volume‑based tariff.

KOC will hold 51 per cent of the JV, with the three global investors sharing the remaining 49 per cent on equal terms; the state will retain full ownership and operational control over the pipelines, and the structure places no limits on Kuwait’s refining throughput or production volumes, which remain a sovereign policy decision. 

The deal, dubbed Project Peregrine, is expected to yield around $7.85 billion in upfront proceeds, helping fund KPC’s capital expenditure, including its goal of lifting crude production capacity to 4 million barrels per day by 2035.

The transaction is billed as the largest foreign direct investment in Kuwait’s history and one of the first major inward deals in the Gulf since the latest escalation of regional tensions. 

It fits a broader pattern across West Asia, where national oil companies and sovereign funds have been monetising pipelines, storage and other midstream assets to free cash for upstream and refining projects while pulling in long‑term institutional capital.

India is the world’s third‑largest crude importer. This move could be seen by India as a major lift in a key supplier’s balance sheet at a time when the country looks diversify beyond Gulf-based barrels. 

Recent trade data show India importing more than 5 million barrels per day of crude, with OPEC’s share slipping to below 30 per cent in 2026 in light of recent geopolitical events in the region, with Russia emerging as a major supplier. 

Kuwait is not among India’s top three crude sources but remains an important OPEC partner. Back in 2024, Indian imports of Kuwaiti crude were valued at roughly $3.09 billion.

Stable, well‑financed export infrastructure in Kuwait serves Indian refiners’ interests by reducing the risk of bottlenecks in a region already grappling with shipping disruptions in the Red Sea and the Gulf. 

At the same time, the deal underlines how India’s energy security is increasingly tied not just to spot barrels and term contracts, but also to the financial strategies that underpin upstream and midstream investment in West Asia. The country seems to have read the signs, given that by mid-2026, India pivoted to a majorly diversified portfolio of crude suppliers.

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