Kuwait’s upstream operator, Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) has pushed back the deadline by a month for bids for an estimated $200m deal to build a new distribution network for electric submersible pumping systems (ESPS) in the north of Kuwait.

Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) bids will now be submitted on 6 March instead of the originally planned 7 February deadline. Eighteen firms have been prequalified.

The systems are used to aid the flow of crude oil from the reservoir to the wellhead when the natural pressure is insufficient to force the trapped oil to the surface.

Separately, state-refiner, Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) has also delayed the bid submission deadline by two weeks for a new acid gas exhaust treatment unit at the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery, 50 kilometers from Kuwait City.

Bids will now be submitted on 20 March instead of 7 March. This is the schemes’ second delay for the deal, which was tendered in early December.  Some 26 firms have been prequalified for the deal.  

No reasons were given for the delays.