A Kuwait official and Shell on Wednesday revealed that state-run Kuwait Oil Company has undergone a five-year service contract with Royal Dutch Shell to set up pure gas fields in the country's north.

Under the agreement Shell is reported to extend the technical knowledge and advanced technology to develop the fields of free, or non-associated gas in northern Kuwait, company spokesman Sheikh Talal Khaled al-Sabah posted in a statement carried by the official KUNA news agency.

However, no further details were disclosed about the value of the contract.

The deal is revealed to increase the output from gas fields not associated with oil output thereby assist in decreasing the exposure of domestic gas supply to OPEC output agreements on oil, Kuwait oil sector spokesman Sheikh Talal al-Khaled al-Sabah informed Reuters on Wednesday.

In March 2006, Kuwait has officially unveiled the discovery of one trillion cubic meters (35 trillion cubic feet) of non-associated natural gas and immediately began work on the field.

In addition, Kuwait also plans to boost annual output from free gas to 28.4 million cubic meters (one billion cubic feet) by 2015.

The Emirate's plans to import gas by pipeline from neighboring nations have failed and last summer it imported a cargo of liquefied natural gas.