State-upstream operator Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) plans to launch tenders before the end of Ramadan in late August for two major telemetry and electrical deals covering oil production facilities across the country.

The first deal will cover telemetry systems across Kuwait’s entire consumer network. The second, an elevated substation scheme will be spread across all KOC facilities, according to contractor sources in Kuwait.

Interest in the two schemes is expected to be strong, particularly for the substation deal, which would involve purely electrical work.

“You can expect most of the [South] Korean firms to bid for this, along with major European engineering firms,” says one Kuwait City-based contractor. The deals could be worth as much as $500m each.

Last year, KOC has approved a raft of new pipeline deals worth more than $400m as part of its efforts to revamp its oil transfer infrastructure to cope with increased oil production. By 2020, Kuwait hopes to produce 4 million barrels a day (b/d) from the currently 3.2 million b/d. Much of the oil will come from the development of Kuwait’s heavy oil resources in the north of the country.

Telemetry systems include supervisory control and data acquisition (Scada), as well as control and management information systems (MIS) to detect oil and gas leaks along networks of pipelines.

The systems are designed to help prevent accidents of the kind that occurred at the Rawdhatain oil field in early 2002, when a pipeline explosion reduced Kuwait’s oil production by approximately 600,000 barrels a day and caused $160m in damage.

Swiss-based ABB was selected in September to provide a Scada system for KOC’s assets, covering 2,000 kilometres of pipeline and 21 gathering centres, but did not disclose the value of the contract.

In 2005, Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas was awarded a $48.2m engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to install a telemetry system for the state’s southern oil fields (MEED 15:07:05).