KUWAIT CITY - Drilling and construction work on Kuwait's Durra gas field will begin later this year after engineering studies wrap up later this summer, Kuwait Petroleum Company's (KPC) CEO told Reuters on Thursday.

Sheikh Nawaf Saud Al-Sabah also said that KPC would reach a production capacity of 3.2 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of this year and expects to increase that to 4 million bpd by 2035.

The company plans to invest 7 billion Kuwaiti dinars ($22.92 billion) on its upstream operations over the next five years, he said.

"We are finishing updating the engineering studies and then starting the drilling and facility construction procedures," he said.

($1 = 0.3055 Kuwaiti dinars)

(Reporting by Ahmed Hagagy; editing by Jason Neely)