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MEOG PROJECTS & COMPANIES MEOG

Kuwait prepares to kick off maritime survey

KUWAIT STATE-OWNED Kuwait Oil Co. (KOC) is pre- production.
paring to launch a tender for an offshore seismic He added that two rigs would be utilised in
survey as the emirate seeks to identify between the project’s first phase.
six and 20 drill sites as part of its inaugural mari- The announcement comes 18 months after
time exploration effort. KOC was first reported to have invited Hallibur-
Local newspaper Al-Anba last week quoted ton and fellow US oilfield services firms Baker
industry sources as saying that KOC had advised Hughes and Schlumberger to submit bids for the
contractors to prepare for tenders to be issued drilling campaign.
imminently for a five-year contract with an At that point, it was noted that two sites
optional extension for an additional six months. had been selected – one inside and one outside
The sources added that the survey will Kuwait Bay.
cover three 3-square km areas and will include Following the contract award last year, Halli-
ensuring that all ordnance and obstacles have burton agreed to charter two jack-up drilling rigs
been removed ahead of the start of drilling. from Chinese drilling contractor China Oilfield
They added that those bidding must provide all Service Ltd (COSL).
necessary equipment and staff to carry out the As a sub-contractor, COSL will deploy two
contract. jack-up rigs – Oriental Dragon and Oriental
In mid-2019, KOC signed a 181.4mn dinar Phoenix – to drill six high-pressure, high-tem-
($597mn) contract with US firm Halliburton to perature wildcats off Kuwait over a three-and-a-
drill six exploratory wells offshore Kuwait. half-year period.
KOC, which is the domestic upstream oper- Drilling was scheduled to start in mid-2020,
ating arm of Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC), with the first rig due to arrive in July 2020 and the
has been promising to start drilling offshore for second in January 2021.
many years, with separate surveys completed by The recent Al-Anba report noted that Hal-
Canada’s Sander Geophysics and China’s BGP liburton had informed KOC of challenges in
during the first half of the decade. terms of importing offshore drilling rigs from
Announcing the Halliburton deal, KOC China owing to the coronavirus (COVID-19)
CEO Emad Sultan said that the campaign would pandemic, with the project’s start date having
add 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) to Kuwaiti now been pushed back until October 2021.™

Week 38 23•September•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P9