Kuwait’s Burgan Company for Well Drilling, Trading & Maintenance has won its second deal in 2009 to supply oil drilling rigs to Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), bringing the company’s total haul for the year to KD153.6m ($536m) of contracts.

Burgan signed up to supply two drilling rigs on 18 November in a deal worth KD31m ($108m). This follows on from the deal the company signed with KOC in April for the supply of five rigs at a total cost of KD122.6m ($427.8m at current exchange rates).

The November contract covers the supply of two 1,500 horsepower rigs for drilling and ‘workovers’ – operations to maintain oil reservoir pressure. Under the terms of the deal, the company will supply and maintain the rigs for five years from the date of the contract signing (MEED 13:4:2009).

The deal is part of KOC’s plans to increase the country’s oil production capacity to 4 million barrels a day (b/d) from current levels of 3 million b/d. The company also awarded two deals worth a total of $552m to China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) earlier in 2009 for the supply of another seven rigs (MEED 7:4:2009; 22:7:2009).

KOC, Sinopec and Burgan declined to comment on where the drills will be used. Senior executives within KOC’s parent company Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC) and at international oil companies (IOCs) say that the number of deals for drilling rigs being done in the country is an indication that the country’s leaders want to start developing new oil fields without the help of IOCs.