Upstream operator Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) is aiming to tender a project to develop four of Kuwait’s so-called Jurassic oil and gas fields on 16 August, according to two sources close to the project.

The project will be divided into three packages and it will include the development of the fields known as West Raudhatain, East Raudhatain, Sabriyah and Umm Niqa, according to the source.

Each package will have a target capacity of 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day (boe/d).

Contractors will only be permitted to win one of the three packages, and the three packages will have a total budget of $1.17bn, according to industry sources.

In July, MEED reported that Kuwait was reviving plans to develop its Jurassic gas fields as it scrambles to make up for lost production in the Divided Zone, where production dropped to zero over the first half of 2015.

Following the tender planned for 16 August, a second Jurassic field development project, with a capacity of 150,000 boe/d, is being planned by KOC.

This will be tendered in the first half of 2016, according to sources close to the scheme.

US engineering consultancy Fluor is carrying out design work for both projects, according to sources.

A $1.56bn scheme to develop reserves in the Jurassic gas fields located in the country’s north was awarded to the local Kharafi National in 2010. The project aimed to produce 100,000 barrels a day (b/d) of wet sour crude and up to 510 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) of gas, along with a sulphur granulation plant. It used a build-operate-transfer (BOT) contracting model, where the contractor would provide the financing for the construction.

After appointing Italy’s Saipem as subcontractor in 2011, then replacing it with the UK’s Petrofac in 2012, the project stalled when Kharafi National failed to secure the financing it needed to proceed with the scheme.

The new Jurassic gas project due to be tendered on 16 August will also use the BOT contracting model, according to industry sources.

The resurrection of plans to develop the Jurassic fields comes after an ongoing dispute with Saudi Arabia over land use in the Divided Zone, which is shared by the two countries.

Amid the ongoing dispute, output in the region fell to zero in the first half of 2015, down from about 500,000 b/d in 2014.

As well as attempting to boost hydrocarbons production in the north of Kuwait, KOC is also looking to develop offshore reserves.