State upstream operator, Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) has awarded a $200m lump-sum engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) to the UK’s Petrofac, for a new power distribution network in the north of the Kuwait.

Petrofac beat rival proposals from three other firms, Hyundai Engineering & Construction of South Korea, Saipem of Italy and Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC). The deal was approved Kuwait’s Central Tenders Committee (CTC) in August.

Petrofac will now build three new substation buildings and lay approximately 900-kilometres of buried cable to connect the substations to the electrical submersible distribution system (ESPS) network.

ESPS 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. The project is expected to be completed in 2015.

With completion expected in 2015, the new facilities will provide a more robust power supply to support the development of the onshore oil fields in North Kuwait.