State-upstream operator, Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) recorded its biggest month for contract awards in December, signing almost $1.3bn-worth of deals and bringing its total to $4.39bn for 2013.

The 12 December contracts include three project management consultancy deals worth a total of $1.2bn, according to the latest data released by KOC.

France’s Technip, Australia’s WorleyParsons and the UK’s Amec were each awarded five-year deals to provide project management, feasibility studies, front-end design, project controls, planning, engineering, procurement, construction management services, as well as the training of KOC project staff.

The December deals bring KOC’s spending to a total of $4.39bn, up 22 per cent from the $3.58bn awarded in 2012. However, the value of major engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) deals remains subdued at just $633m.

The largest of these projects was a $480m deal with Turkish engineering and construction group, STFA to build and expand small boat harbours at KOC’s South and North Piers.  

This year should bring an improvement in EPC contract award values with several major projects due for bids. Proposals are set to be submitted on 19 January for the construction of an effluent water treatment and injection plant in the north of the country and for an estimated $2bn deal for three new oil and gas gathering centres.

The projects are part of a $45.9bn spending plan from 2014 to 2019 for new infrastructure for Kuwait to reach its production capacity targets. KOC plans to raise crude production to 3.2 million barrels a day (b/d) by 2015, and then 3.7 million b/d by 2020, a level it will seek to maintain until 2030. The state-run upstream operator currently has the capacity to produce about 3 million b/d.