Page 15 - DMEA Week 48 2020

DMEA REFINING DMEA

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
The bidding is ment and construction (EPC) firms to bid on oil reassessed its capital programme, reduced
for engineering, projects that are expected to be carried out over spending in its 2020-2025 five-year plan.
procurement and the next five years. Given that KOC is reported to have cancelled
construction work. 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. sion system operator DESFA won a $107mn
They said that the contracts would cover contract to operate and maintain a regasification
facility modernisation and several new projects, facility at the Al-Zour petrochemicals complex,
without providing any further details. which is anticipated to come into operation next
The news follows KOC’s efforts to expand its year.
drilling capabilities through the acquisition of 31 Kuwait has been attempting to maintain
drilling towers for a five-year period at a cost of highly ambitious capacity targets of 4mn bar-
$759mn. rels per day by the end of this year and 4.75mn
According to industry sources, KOC intends bpd by the end of 2040, up from the current
to “drill around 400 new crude oil wells” once the 3.1-3.2mn bpd. In late 2019, the 2020 target
new towers are delivered, raising the total num- was reported to have been pushed back to
ber of drilling units in Kuwait to 150. 2040. ™

Week 48 03•December•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P15