KOC Receives Bids for Offshore Drilling Rigs Supply Contract

Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) has received bids from four companies in a tender for self-elevating (jack-up) offshore drilling rigs. The bids were opened by the Supreme Purchasing Committee of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and its subsidiaries, which referred them to working groups for study, according to a report.

ADNOC Drilling submitted the lowest offers, at KD 43.26 million (about AED 516.1 million) and KD 53.3 million (about AED 635.8 million). Arabian Drilling Company submitted two bids of KD 55.55 million (about AED 662.7 million) each, while ADES submitted bids of KD 58.83 million (about AED 701.8 million) and KD 66.23 million (about AED 790.1 million).

A fourth bid, from Power Holdings Limited, was rejected because the company did not provide a bank guarantee.

In January, KPC launched a tender for two jack-up rigs to drill eight high-pressure, high-temperature exploratory wells over four years. It is not clear whether the bids opened this month relate to that tender.

KOC achieved a 100% success rate in the six wells of its first offshore exploration phase, and a second phase will add 18 wells, according to Deputy CEO for Exploration and Drilling Khaled Al-Mulla. He said offshore production capacity is projected to reach about 150,000 barrels per day by 2035.