MEED magazine revealed that the Kuwait Oil Company has given a new deadline for submitting bids for two strategic oil projects in Kuwait. Together, the two projects are valued at $1.4 billion.
MEED said that the Central Agency for Public Tenders has set a new deadline of November 10 for both projects: the first is a project to develop sewage disposal stations for injection wells. These stations, called EWDP-1 and EWDP-2, are part of an expansion plan, and the project is estimated to be worth KWD 220 million ($716 million).
The second strategic project, which has been given a new deadline for submitting bids, focuses on the installation of a separation center known as SGC-2 in the eastern region of Kuwait, which is referred to as EK-2.
The scope of the project also includes initial debottlenecking works, and the project is estimated to be worth KWD 207 million ($673 million).
Qualified Companies
MEED reported that when the projects were tendered in June this year, the following companies were pre-qualified to bid for both: Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea), Samsung Engineering (South Korea), Saipem (Italy), Sinopec Luoyang Engineering (China), Sinopec Engineering (China), Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain), Larsen & Toubro (India), Daewoo Engineering & Construction (South Korea), Petrofac International (UK), and GS Engineering & Construction (South Korea).
Upstream and Downstream Projects
The magazine indicated that Kuwait is currently working on pushing the upstream project, as it aims to produce 4 million barrels of oil per day by 2035.
The current production capacity is about 2.9 million barrels per day, and the country aims to reach 3.2 million barrels per day by 2025 or 2026.
Kuwait is developing a major project plan that will be published in the coming months, and the new list will consist of several master plans. The new list of planned projects is expected to include upstream and downstream projects, as well as petrochemical facilities.
Gas Project
Kuwait Oil Company has extended the deadline for submitting bids for its project to install depletion pressure systems and sulfur recovery units (SRUs) at two major facilities in northern Kuwait.
The project includes installing the new units at facilities known as Early Production Facility 50 (EPF-50) and Jurassic Production Facility 3 (JPF-3).
Bidding documents were originally made available on September 17, 2023, with a deadline for bids of December 17 of that year. Due to scope changes, the deadline has been extended several times. The latest extension pushed the deadline for bids from October 1, 2024 to October 15, 2024.
In August, MEED reported that the estimated budget for the project had increased from approximately $380 million to $460 million.
The project will use a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) contract model, according to the bidding documents.
EPF-50 and JPF-3 are sour hydrocarbon processing and handling facilities located in northern Kuwait, designed to handle high-pressure sour hydrocarbons from several Jurassic wells in the North Kuwait fields.
EPF-50 can currently process 200 million standard cubic feet per day (scf/d) of gas, 50,000 barrels per day (b/d) of oil and 130 tons per day (t/d) of sulfur.
The JPF-3 facility can currently process 150 million standard cubic feet per day of gas, 50,000 barrels per day of oil and 200 tons per day of sulphur.
Due to the changes in the scope of the project, the capacity of JPF-3 will now be increased beyond the quantities specified in the original tender documents. It is currently unclear to what extent the capacity of EPF-50 and JPF-3 will increase under the scope of the new project.
Building and infrastructure projects market rebound
MEED confirmed that the construction and infrastructure projects market in Kuwait witnessed an impressive recovery in the first half of 2024, with the value of contracts awarded rising to more than $2.1 billion, more than double the value of contracts awarded in the first half of 2023, which amounted to about $1 billion.
Kuwait spent more than $45 billion on construction and transportation schemes in 2015 and 2016 amid high oil prices, and the construction sector was the third largest projects sector in Kuwait last year, with about $600 million in contracts awarded.
So far this year, contracts worth around $1.3 billion have been awarded, putting the year on track to surpass the annual average of $1.7 billion in contracts awarded in 2018-2022.
Kuwait’s transport sector also saw its strongest project activity in 2023, with contracts worth more than $2.7 billion awarded. This was the best year for contracts since 2017, when $2.3 billion worth of projects were awarded.
The most significant contract awarded last year was the $1.12 billion deal awarded to Beijing-based China Gezhouba Group Corporation for infrastructure works at South Saad Al Abdullah Residential City.
Infrastructure tenders for South Saad Al-Abdullah City
MEED reported that the Public Authority for Housing Welfare has issued several new tenders to develop the infrastructure in South Saad Al-Abdullah City in Jahra Governorate.
The Authority has issued three separate tenders covering different areas within the development, as the scope of the first tender includes infrastructure development works for residential areas in sectors including NFU1, NFU3, NFU4, NFU5, NFU6, NFU18, and NFU19-15.
The second tender includes infrastructure development works for residential areas in sectors including NFU2, NFU12, NFU13, NFU14, NFU15, and NFU16-13.
The scope of the third tender includes infrastructure development works for residential areas in sectors including NFU7, NFU8, NFU9, NFU10, NFU11 and NFU17-11-12.
