Preparations ongoing for Kuwait remediation project

14 May 2025

 

State-owned upstream operator Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) is continuing to prepare tender documents for its oil remediation project known as Sustainable Environmental Economic Development Phase 2 (Seed-2).

The invitation to bid is expected to be issued before the end of this year, according to industry sources.

Previously, the project was anticipated to be issued in the first quarter of 2025.

One industry source said: “The tender issuance has been delayed for several reasons. Part of this is due to existing remediation contracts being extended.

“There are also ongoing debates about the details of the planned tender and which companies will be eligible.”

One topic of debate within KOC about the contacts has been whether the tender will be limited to Kuwait-based companies or open to both Kuwaiti and international contractors.

Currently, it is unknown whether international contractors will be permitted to participate, according to industry sources.

The project is expected to be tendered with five-year service contracts.

The scheme involves remediating 4 million cubic metres of soil and is estimated to be worth about KD50m ($130m).

The project will be executed under KOC’s budget, unlike previous similar projects, which were carried out with funds from the UN’s budget for the Kuwait Environmental Remediation Programme (Kerp).

The three packages will focus on three different areas. These are:

  • North Zone
  • West Zone
  • South East Zone

The original Seed project was a pilot project launched in 2012 to remediate soil in the Burgan oil field.

This field is considered to be the world’s second-largest and contains most of Kuwait’s oil reserves.

The project covered remediating various contaminated features of oil field properties to acceptable levels and restoring the soil’s ecological functions.

It aimed to remediate approximately 0.9 million cubic metres of soil and 0.16 million cubic metres of sludge and recover 0.8 million barrels of free-phase oil by 2016.

In total, 25 test sites, with an average area of 45,000 square metres, were set to be remediated.

Since the launch of the original Seed project, Kuwait has delivered several major remediation schemes, with many achieving results that exceeded expectations.

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Wil Crisp
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