Upstream operator Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) is expecting the ongoing project to expand the gas sweetening facility in west Kuwait to be completed in March 2019, according to industry sources.

The scope of the project includes the addition of an extra train with a capacity of 40 million standard cubic feet a day (mmscfd). This will bring the facility's total capacity up to 90 mmscfd. 

It is currently being executed by the Kuwait-based contractor Spetco International Petroleum Company.

KOC awarded the contract to construct the original gas sweetening facility to Spetco in 2008. The facility was tendered on a Build-Own-Operate (BOO) basis.

The gas processing plant’s primary purpose is to remove the sour components (H2S and CO2) from the natural gas, leaving a sweet and dry product gas for delivery.  

The processing facility was commissioned in August 2010. It was initially designed to process 40 mmscfd of gas but a subsequent revamp project increased the facility’s capacity to 50 mmscfd, prior to the latest expansion project.