Eight Western companies are competing for a contract worth around 1.47 million Kuwaiti dinars ($4.8 million) to provide consultancy services to Kuwait's plans to restructure its oil sector, a local newspaper reported on Sunday.

The Kuwaiti government has given final approval to the plan, which will be executed by the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), the Arabic language daily Al-Anba said, citing responsible oil sources in the OPEC member.

KPC invited bids for that contract in Sept 2019 but the tender was postponed due to delayed government response and technical reasons, it said.

Pre-qualified bidders include US firms Boston Consulting Group, McKknsey&Company, Kearney, Bain&Company, Oliver Wyman and Strategy&, a consulting business unit of PricewaterhouseCoopers, as well as the London-based Deloitte Company and Accenture Consulting of Ireland.

Officials earlier said the restructuring programme, which has been endorsed by Kuwait's Supreme Petroleum Council, involves reduction of the number of operating companies through mergers and slashing industry activities to three main sectors comprising production, exploration and refining.

Al-Anba said the plan would save large funds, reduce decision-making time and prevent duplication of projects and operations.

Kuwait, which controls nearly 101 billion barrels in proven oil deposits, said last month it is planning to minimize spending in the oil industry because of the spread of Coronavirus.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

#Kuwait #Oilandgas #KuwaitPetroleumCorporation(KPC)

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