US firm wins major Kuwait oil production deal

24 April 2008

The US’ Processes Unlimited has won a KD31.6m ($117m) contract to produce substantial amounts of crude and associated gas for state upstream operator Kuwait Oil Company (KOC).

Under the terms of the five-year, build-operate contract the California-based full-service engineering firm will install an early production facility (EPF) at the northern Ratqa and Abdali fields to produce 120,000 barrels a day of wet sour crude and 80 million cubic feet a day of liquefied petroleum gas.

The work also covers a crude export pipeline connecting the early production facilities with gathering centre 15, a gas pipeline connecting to booster station 131, and electricity generating facilities to power the plant. Once the contract is completed, the facility can be dismantled or sold (MEED 4:5:07).

KOC views the project as a precursor to a larger wet crude production project and will closely evaluate the results of the temporary EPF scheme. Wet crude is oil with high amounts of water content, something KOC is increasingly encountering as its existing fields age and it prepares to develop more complex reservoirs.

Water effluent from the project will have to be treated and disposed of, most likely through the estimated $750m effluent and seawater injection project currently under bidding (MEED 12:10:07).

Processes Unlimited was widely expected to win the contract after submitting the low bid for the project last year, and after the Central Tenders Committee approved its offer in February. It is thought to be the company’s first major win in the region (MEED 21:2:08).

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