Kuwait aims to boost production of crude oil and natural gas at deposits it’s developing as the Persian Gulf country seeks to bring new resources to the market, an official at state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp. said.

    Kuwait Oil Co., a unit of Kuwait Petroleum, is starting a heavy-crude pilot project in the northern part of the country to produce 50,000 barrels a day by 2015, Mohammad Hussain, the company’s deputy chairman for planning and gas, said at a conference in Dubai yesterday. Output will rise to 400,000 barrels a day as the project’s scope is increased after 2020.

    Kuwait is also evaluating gas reserves at its six fields, Hussain said. Resources in the fields may exceed the initial estimate of 10 billion cubic feet of gas, he said.

    “It’s going to be big,” Hussain said. “We are exploring, appraising, developing and producing at the same time, so the numbers will keep changing.”

    Kuwait Petroleum issued a tender for engineering contracts to develop the deposits and will decide on a winning bid by April. The company is also working on projects to build processing facilities for gas and associated gas.