State-owned operator Kuwait Oil Company has awarded local firm Mechanical Engineering & Contracting Company (MECC) the main contract for upstream oil processing at Gathering Centres 9, 10, 20 and 22.

The company submitted a low bid of KD59.4m ($195m) to carry out engineering procurement and construction at the facilities in East Kuwait.

MEED reported that MECC had submitted the lowest bid on the project in November 2016.

The firm also submitted the lowest bid of $200m on upstream oil processing at KOC’s southern gathering centres 3, 4, 7 and 21.

The Kuwaiti firm was one of seven firms to submit bids on the eastern gathering centres project tendered in mid-2016. The firms that bid are:

• Mechanical Engineering and Contracting Company ($195mn)
• Heavy Engineering Industries & Shipbuilding Co ($238mn)
• Arabi Enertech ($242mn)
• Alghanim International General Trading & Contracting ($243mn)
• Integral Services Co ($247mn)
• IMCO ($256mn)
• Gulf Spic ($265mn) 

KOC is building several gathering centres to support oil production, which the country plans to increase to four million barrels a day (b/d) by 2020. The Gulf state produced an average of 2.8 million b/d in November 2016.