Two companies - Spain's TecnicasReunidasand South Korea's Daelim Industrial Company- submitted bids on 17 October for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to install a telemetry system for the state's southern oil fields.

The estimated $50 million-70 million contract calls for the installation of a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system, a management information system (MIS) and control systems to detect oil and gas leaks along the network of pipelines owned by the client, state-owned upstream operator Kuwait Oil Company (KOC). KOC is expected to make an award by year-end (MEED 1:10:04).

The telemetry system is designed to help prevent accidents of the kind that occurred at the Rawdhatain oil field in early 2002. An explosion on a main pipeline reduced Kuwait's oil production by about 600,000 barrels a day and caused damage estimated at $160 million (MEED 12:4:02).