OPEC oil producer Kuwait has awarded contracts to companies from the US, China and Kuwait for the supply of 24 drilling platforms as part of plans to boost crude and gas production capacity in the long term, according to local press reports.

The state-owned Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), which manages the Gulf state’s upstream sector, has awarded the deals recently and supply of the systems would be completed within 15 months, the Arabic language daily Alqabas said.

In a report on Monday, the paper quoted “informed” sources in Kuwait as saying Chinese companies would supply nine platforms while nine would be provided by US firms and 5 by Kuwaiti companies.

It did not identify those firms apart from saying the new platforms are part of KOC’s stated plans to boost crude oil output capacity to 3.65 million bpd and gas production to around 1.5 billion cubic feet per day by 20235.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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