State-owned Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) is soon expected to invite companies to submit bids for an oil gathering centre project known as GC32, according to sources familiar with the project.

The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) tender was expected to be floated in the first quarter of 2016 but has been pushed back for unknown reasons.

The project will be built near Kuwait’s giant Burgan oil field. The scope of the scheme is thought to have been expanded to include a booster station modification and is estimated to be worth a total of close to $2bn.

UK-based consultancy Amec Foster Wheeler completed front-end engineering and design (feed) work for Gathering Centre 32 in December 2014.

Kuwait’s oil fields are currently connected to 26 gathering centres, which serve as a collection location for crude produced at several wells connected by flow lines, providing initial treatment through the separation of associated gas and removing salt.

Three additional gathering centres are currently in the early stages of execution, after contracts with a total value of $2.3bn were awarded in July 2014. These gathering centres are known as GC29, GC30 and GC31.

The contracts for these facilities were awarded to the UK’s Petrofac, India’s Larsen & Toubro and the UAE’s Dodsal Group, respectively.