Kuwait state-owned national oil company, Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), plans to award a KWD1.2bn (US$4.3bn) contract for the first phase of its northern Ratqa heavy oil project. KOC will extend the deadline for bids for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract (11 May 2014) if companies continues to have queries. The northern Ratqa filed is expected to produce up to 60,000 bbl/d of heavy oil, as early as 2017 or 2018. Its production would be doubled to 120,000 bbl/d by 2020 and could even raise to 270,000 bbl/d after 2020.
The development of this field is part of Kuwait's target to raise its oil production from 3 mb/d to 4 mb/d by 2020; KOC expects to contribute by 650,000 bbl/d to the 4 mb/d target.
Moreover, Kuwait National Petroleum (KNPC) has awarded a total of US$7.2bn contracts to upgrade environmental standards and increase capacity at Kuwait oil refineries. Samsung Engineering, Petrofac and Chicago Bridge & Iron won a US$1.62bn order for the Mina Abudullah refinery, while Daewoo, Fluor and HHI won US$1.13bn each in contracts for this refinery. GS Engineering & Construction, SK Engineering & Construction, and JGC won US$1.66bn in contracts for the Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery.