About 73 projects were canceled in 2020 which were scheduled to be implemented over the past five years as part of joint operations in Al-Wafra and Khafji — 48 projects in Wafra area and 25 in Khafji.
Al-Rai has learned from oil sources that the estimated total approved budget for these projects by the Kuwait Gulf Oil Company was more than 400 million dinars. Of the cancelled projects, the oil sources said 36 were cancelled as a result of production stoppage and 15 did not have the approval of the relevant committees and authorities, or because they were considered not viable.
The sources added there are various reasons for canceling 11 projects, either because the ‘oil’ felt they were no longer needed, due to budget reasons, modification of the value or even lack of coordination between various concerned departments or the change in the scope of work, in addition to the fact that there are projects that have been canceled due to the emergence of alternatives that are less costly in the long term, or to merge them within other projects or re-study them for modernization and reassessment of the need for them.
The sources confirmed that there is an agreement between the partners in the joint operations areas, the Kuwait Gulf Oil Company and the Saudi partner, on the importance of filtering capital projects and classifying them according to priority in line with the targeted production rates and strategic goals through meetings and workshops to agree on their importance and the extent of their need.
Regarding gas flaring, the sources said, “With regard to the Khafji joint operations, work is underway as soon as possible on gas export projects by the two partners, which will raise the material and environmental returns, and with regard to joint Wafra operations, official approvals have been obtained to move forward with the project to establish a gas gathering center and the establishment of an export line and a fuel gas import line to process it for the two partners in two phases.
