Page 11 - MEOG Week 48

MEOG TENDERS MEOG

Kuwait shortlists firms

for future oil project work

KUWAIT KUWAIT Oil Co. (KOC) last week shortlisted KOC’s parent firm Kuwait Petroleum Corp.
five major international engineering, procure- (KPC) has prioritised its investments having
ment and construction (EPC) firms to bid on oil reassessed its capital programme, reduced
projects that are expected to be carried out over spending in its 2020-2025 five-year plan.
the next five years. Given that KOC is reported to have cancelled
According to the local Al-Anba news out- a project to drill 11 wells to expand the produc-
let which quoted oil sector sources, the con- tion of heavy oil, the company’s focus appears to
tracts up for bidding will cover the provision of be conventional projects.
major engineering design services and project Meanwhile, it is proceeding with a $1.5bn
management. contract to construct facilities dedicated to the
The announcement of the shortlist accords development of large Jurassic Gas resources,
with the Public Tenders Law, and KOC is now with growing consumption leading to greater
expected to issue a tender for the work within the dependence on imported LNG. Gas production
next few weeks. Meanwhile, Al-Anba’s sources sat at 18.4bn cubic metres last year with asso-
said that the winning bidders would be expected ciated gas accounting for nearly 90% and con-
to work alongside KOC to prepare engineering sumption rising to 23.5 bcm.
designs and to oversee implementation of the Also last week, Greek natural gas transmis-
projects. They said that the contracts would sion system operator DESFA won a $107mn
cover facility modernisation and several new contract to operate and maintain a regasification
projects, without providing any further details. facility at the Al-Zour petrochemicals complex,
The news follows KOC’s efforts to expand its which is anticipated to come into operation next
drilling capabilities through the acquisition of 31 year.
drilling towers for a five-year period at a cost of Kuwait has been attempting to maintain
$759mn. highly ambitious capacity targets of 4mn bar-
According to industry sources, KOC intends rels per day by the end of this year and 4.75mn
to “drill around 400 new crude oil wells” once the bpd by the end of 2040, up from the current
new towers are delivered, raising the total num- 3.1-3.2mn bpd. In late 2019, the 2020 target was
ber of drilling units in Kuwait to 150. reported to have been pushed back to 2040.™

Week 48 02•December•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P11