Kuwait said it is stepping up security at oil fields and at its exploration arm by adding more facilities and staff.

The world's seventh-largest oil exporter said in September it planned to tighten security at energy installations and was coordinating with US authorities.

Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), in charge of domestic oil output and exploration, said it was adding more facilities such as guard houses, high-tech fences, vehicle barriers and improving gate access.

Fields in the north and west area of the GCC state posed "a massive security challenge," the company said in its company magazine.

"Unfortunately, in this area we have internal and external KOC facilities, such as oil wells and flow lines flowing outside KOC's fenced area," Saad Al Ajmi, KOC security team leader for the northern and western areas, told the magazine.
 
The Kuwaiti oil firm was leaning towards the oil security model in Saudi Arabia implemented by Saudi Aramco, said Jim Evans of KOC's security advisory team.

Aramco has said it employs 5000 security guards, and that its armed guards work in close coordination with Saudi government security forces.

KOC had boosted security staff to 415 from just 36-37 in 2005 and aimed to boost staff to 750-800 in about two and half years, the magazine said.

Kuwait increased security around April this year after Saudi Arabia said it had foiled an Al Qaeda-linked plot that included plans to attack oil facilities.Reuters