Page 12 - MEOG Week 49

MEOG TENDERS MEOG

Following negotiation, KOC to

award contracts for drill towers

KUWAIT KUWAIT Oil Co. (KOC) is poised to award language media as saying that Kuwait carries out
contracts to seven companies for the lease of 31 more than 1,100 well repair operations each year.
drilling towers. The five-year contracts are esti- Another well-placed figure said that the move
mated to amount to 230mn dinars ($754mn) in was part of KOC’s efforts to expand E&P activ-
value, with local media reporting that KOC had ities in line with its upstream strategy for 2040
managed to drive the price down by 11mn dinars and developing newly discovered reservoirs.
($37mn). Kuwait had been attempting to maintain
Kuwaiti daily Al-Anba said that the winners highly ambitious capacity targets of 4mn bpd by
comprised local firms Burgan Wells Drilling and the end of this year and 4.75mn bpd by the end of
Kuwaiti Drilling Co. (KDC), as well as interna- 2040, up from the current 3.1-3.2mn bpd. In late
tional companies Sinopec, Jerry, Aleph, Sino 2019, the 2020 target was reported to have been
Tharwa Drilling and Schlumberger. The con- pushed back to 2040.
tracts are now being drawn up and are expected In September, KOC was reported to have
to be signed within the next month. cancelled a project to drill 11 wells as part of the
News broke of the intention to lease the 31 country’s efforts to expand the production of
towers in November and this followed the launch heavy oil.
of a tender by KOC in August for the acquisition Citing senior company sources, the local
of 24 HP750, HP550 and HP1000 drilling rigs. Al-Rai newspaper said that the $400mn contract
This had been delayed from Q3 2019. had already been awarded to an international
The company intends to “drill around 400 company, but that it was yet to be signed.
new crude oil wells” once the new towers are The move comes as parent firm Kuwait
delivered, according to the source. The new units Petroleum Corp. (KPC), like its counterparts
will take the total in the country to 150, com- throughout the region, has reassessed its capital
prised of 80 for drilling and 70 for well repair. programme, and reduced capital spending in its
One senior source was quoted by Arabic 2020-2025 five-year plan.™

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 49 09•December•2020