Three joint ventures have been formed ahead of the official invitation to bid for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to build the first phase of Kuwait Oil Company’s (KOC’s) Jurassic gas facility, according to several industry sources.

 The joint ventures are:

• SK Engineering & Construction (South Korea) / Petrofac (UK)
• Samsung Engineering (South Korea) / Larsen & Toubro (India)
• Saipem (Italy) / Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain)

The EPC contract for phase one of the Jurassic gas facility is estimated to be worth between $3.5bn and $5bn.

Earlier this month, KOC announced it would formally invite companies to bid for the contract, saying tenders would be issued in a period of 30 or more days.

KOC named seven companies that had qualified to become the main contractors on the project.

It also stipulated that the main contractor would have to choose a partner from another list of contractors and bid for the deal as part of a joint venture.

 The companies that qualified to become the main contractor on the project are:

• JGC Corporation (Japan)
• Kellogg Brown & Root (US)
• SK Engineering & Construction 
• Saipem 
• Technicas Reunidas 
• Samsung Engineering
• Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea)

The first phase of the Jurassic gas facility will be located in Kuwait’s Al-Ahmadi governorate and has been designed to produce 590 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) of gas.

The scheme is being developed to meet Kuwait’s growing gas demand. The government plans to produce more than 4 billion cf/d by 2030, primarily to meet power generation requirements.

Kuwait currently burns a large volume of oil products to meet its utility needs.

In December 2016, KOC awarded the US-based Black & Veatch a licensing technology and related services contract for sulphur recovery and acid gas removal units to support natural gas processing at the first phase of the Jurassic natural gas facility.

The initial phase is scheduled to be completed in 2021.