Four oil services companies have been awarded deals worth almost $1bn combined to carry out drilling at oil and gas fields in Kuwait.

The four contracts were awarded by state-owned upstream group Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) and cover the provision of directional drilling, measurement while drilling (MWD) logging while drilling (LWD).

US-based Baker Hughes won the largest deal with a value of KD91.97m ($305.33m), while Anadrill International, a subsidiary of Schlumberger, was awarded a KD90.44m contract.

US groups Halliburton and Weatherford International were awarded contracts worth KD63.56m and KD47.83m respectively.

KOC awarded the contracts during July 2016 but no further details were available on the scope of works.

KOC, the upstream crude producing arm of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, is targeting increasing production to 3.65 million barrels a day (b/d) by 2020 and maintain this until 2030. Current production levels are about 2.9 million b/d.