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State-owned upstream operator Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) has awarded a contract to East Ahmadi-based Mechanical Engineering & Contracting Company (MECC) to build an oil pipeline network.

The project scope includes installing group manifolds and trunk lines in North Kuwait, according to a statement from Kuwait’s Central Agency for Public Tenders (CAPT).

The contract was awarded on 8 December and has a value of KD34.7m ($113.1m).

MECC outbid three other companies, who were:

• Combined Group Contracting Company – KD35.4m
• Sayed Hamid Behbehani & Sons Company – KD39.8m
• Heavy Engineering Industries & Shipbuilding Company (Heisco) – KD40.1m

The project will install infrastructure to transport liquids from oil wells to gathering centers 29, 30m and 31.

Kuwait is set to record its highest total annual value for oil, gas and chemicals contract awards since 2017, according to data from regional project tracker MEED Projects.

Earlier in December, MEED reported that 19 contracts totalling $1.9bn had been awarded so far in 2025.

This is more than four times the value of contract awards in the same sectors last year, when they totalled just $436m.

It is also above the $1.7bn peak recorded in 2021, but it remains far lower than the values of contract awards seen in 2014-17, when several large-scale, multibillion-dollar projects were awarded in the country.

The surge in the value of contract awards has come after Kuwait’s emir indefinitely dissolved parliament and suspended some of the country’s constitutional articles in May 2024.

Prior to the suspension of parliament, Kuwait experienced very low levels of project awards for several years amid political gridlock and infighting between the cabinet and parliament.

This meant that important project decisions could not be made, which was seen as a major obstacle to the progress of strategic oil projects.