State-owned upstream operator Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) is planning to tender two Jurassic Production Facility (JPF) projects before the end of the year, according to industry sources.

“Documents have already been sent to the Central Agency for Public Tenders (CAPT) to be issued – but there is some confusion regarding the qualified companies,” said one source. “The confusion over the prequalified companies has delayed the tender – but the project is still expected to be tendered before the end of the year.”

Another source said: “We are expecting the packages to be tendered in December or, at the latest, February 2019.” The new contracts are called JPF 4 and JPF 5. Both of these contracts will be tendered using Kuwait’s early production facility (EPF) contract, rather than the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model.

Kuwait’s EPF model is a build-own-operate (BOO) model, which allows the main contractor to recover costs by operating the facility before it is transferred to a public company.

There is an option for KOC to buy the facility after a period of five years.

Under the terms of the contract for JPF 4 and JPF 5, the companies that are awarded the project will have 22 months to execute the project and then will operate and maintain the facility for five years.

Together the two contracts will create an onshore surface production facility with the capacity to produce 50,000 barrels of oil a day (b/d) and 150 million standard cubic feet of gas a day (scf/d).

The hydrocarbons will be produced from sour and wet reservoir fluids from the North Kuwait Jurassic Fields.

The scope of the two projects will also include a water treatment unit, a sulphur recovery unit and associated facilities like a control room, substations and buildings. Three other JPF contracts have already been awarded.

Kuwait’s Jurassic Production Facility (JPF) in the West Raudhatain field is on course to be completed in early November.

The $377m contract for the project was awarded to by Kuwait Oil Company to Kuwait-based contractor Spetco in July 2016.

The scope for phase one of the project included a gas processing facility and an oil processing facility with respective capacities of 120 million scb/d and 40,000 b/d respectively. It was fully commissioned at the end of March this year.

Phase two of the project is the Sulphur Recovery Unit (SRU). It is scheduled to be fully commissioned in early November.

The other two contracts were awarded to US-based Schlumberger. These were a contract worth $380m for the East Raudhatain JPF and a third contract to develop the Umm Niqa and Sabriya fields, which was worth $477m.