Kuwait has pre-qualified 17 foreign companies to bid for a project to increase gas production in its northern fields close to the border with Iraq, a newspaper in the OPEC producer reported on Sunday.

The project involves the construction of two production facilities for Jurassic gas with a capacity of 160 million cubic feet and 50,000 barrels per day of light crude each, the Arabic language daily Al-Anba said, citing responsible oil sources in Kuwait.

The state-owned Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) has pre-qualified 17 international firms for the project on build-own-operate (BOO) basis, it said, adding that tenders would be issued within one month.

"The project replaces an earlier EPC contract which was cancelled due to high costs...this project will lift Kuwait's gas and light crude production to 820 million cubic feet and 280,000 bpd respectively," the paper said.

Pre-qualified companies include the National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC), Engineers India, Toyo Engineering Corp, Technip, Triune Energy Services, EPC Corporation, Processes Unlimited International, Técnicas Reunidas, Enereco, Larsen &Toubro and Petrofac.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

© ZAWYA 2019