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OPEC member Kuwait awarded contracts worth nearly 1.85 billion Kuwaiti dinars ($6.1 billion) in 2021, nearly 6 times higher than the value of projects awarded in 2020.
The Arabic language daily Alanba, citing official data, said the value of contracts in 2020 stood at around 303 million dinars ($999 million).
The figures showed 236 contracts were awarded by the government in 2021 and that the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) accounted for the bulk of those projects.
The paper did not mention reasons for the surge in awarded contracts in 2021 but activity in construction and other sectors in Kuwait and most regional countries plunged in 2020 because of the spread of the coronavirus.
State-owned KOC, which manages the Gulf emirate’s upstream sector, emerged by far as the largest tender issuer, awarding projects with a combined value of nearly 1.32 billion dinars ($4.35 billion) in 2021, according to the report.
(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)
