State-owned Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) will soon award a project involving operation and maintenance services for one of its water pumping stations used to supply its oil facilities, a local newspaper reported on Friday.

KOC, which is in charge of the OPEC member’s upstream oil operations, is in the “final stage of negotiations” with a company for the contract, the Arabic language daily Al-Anba said, citing KOC sources.

The paper said the project has a value of around 16 million Kuwaiti dinars ($53 million) and it includes providing operation and maintenance services to KOC’s water pumping facilities in its main water treatment plant in Sulaibya in the Northern Jahra Governorate.

“The project is intended to ensure sufficient water supplies for KOC to use it in injection and production operations at its oil wells in that area,” the paper said.

The report noted that the project is part of plans by KOC to rely more on processed water in its oil production operations to conserve underground water in the desert Gulf emirate, adding that KOC is pushing ahead with plans to expand output capacity.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)