New crisis looms in oil sector: Kuwait

It seems that a new crisis is looming in the oil sector concerning the contracts for consultancy companies for major projects (PMC) in the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC). The value of the contract is estimated at about KD 103 million and is for a period of five years. This is the value of the initial insurance, reports Al-Rai daily. According to informed sources, the five companies are “Warley Parsons”, “KBR”, “Eamic”, “Technip” and “Fluor”. Technip and Fluor were excluded for not adjusting the value of the initial insurance, estimated at KD 2.6 million to 2.65 million instead of 2.5 million.

The two companies submitted complaints to the grievance committee of the Council of Ministers on the grounds that the error was not their fault, and that KOC informed them to visit the website of the Central Agency for Public Tenders (CAPT), despite the fact that the website does not mention anything regarding this matter. Although CAPT approved KOC’s decision to exclude the two companies, there are talks about the Cabinet’s grievance committee accepting the two companies’ grievances and not excluding them. This would cause a crisis in awarding the tender.

The sources indicated that the offers submitted by the companies ranged between KD 80 million and KD 90 million per contract, adding that the consulting companies in the current contract are Eamic, Warley Parson, Fluor and Technip. Meanwhile, according to a report issued by the Communication and Information Technology Regulatory Authority (CITRA), the spending on communications and information technology by individuals, companies and public sector institutions will reach $4.85 billion in Kuwait during the year 2021, reports Al-Anba daily. It revealed that the spending on communications and information technology in the country has witnessed a steady growth from $ 4.6 billion in 2016 to $ 5.2 billion in 2019, with a compound annual growth rate of 4.1 percent.