State-run Kuwait Gulf Oil Company, which operates on the Kuwaiti side of a shared Neutral Zone with Saudi Arabia, plans to invest $3.6 billion by 2012, its managing director said.

"We've laid out our five-year investment plans starting from 2008 until 2012 estimated to be worth 994 million dinars ($3.65 billion)," Bader Al-Khashti told daily Al-Seyassah.

He did not say which specific projects the company would invest in, reiterating only that it was sticking to its 2020 plan to boost output capacity.

Al-Khashti said in February Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were on track to boost oil output capacity in the shared Neutral Zone  by 50,000 barrels per day to 624,000 bpd by 2009.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait share estimated output of around 550,000 bpd from the Neutral Zone, a region between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait that dates back to 1920s treaties to establish regional borders. - Reuters