Safwan's bid was some 40 per cent below the next best offer of KD 95.2 million ($328 million) submitted by a local firm identified as Al-Rashed Group. Saudi Arabia's Al-Khorayef Commercial Company is ranked third on price at KD 114 million ($393 million). UAE-based Petrofac Internationalwas the only other bidder, submitting an offer of KD 292 million ($1,007 million).

The state's first commercial heavy sour crude oil production project is aimed initially at processing 50,000 barrels a day (b/d) of heavy crude from 20 wells in the two northern oil fields of Rawdhatain and Sabriya. The proposed scheme will also produce about 35 million cubic feet a day of gas, which KOC plans to supply to state refinery operator Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC).

The scheme's engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) scope will include a produced water treatment and effluent water disposal system and gas compression, an amine treating and sweetening plant and sulphur recovery and tail gas units.

The EPF project is part of KOC's plans to process sour crude and blend it with the sweet crude produced from its oil fields in the north, south and southeast. KOC's production capacity is more than 2.4 million b/d; it plans to increase production to 4 million b/d by 2020 (MEED 3:6:05).