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Contractors announce Dorra gas project contract awards

18 August 2026

Contractors selected by Al-Khafji Joint Operations (KJO) for two major offshore packages and one onshore package under its multibillion-dollar Dorra field facilities development project have confirmed their contract awards through official announcements.

The Dorra offshore gas field is located in the waters of the Saudi-Kuwait Neutral Zone.

KJO – jointly owned by Saudi Aramco subsidiary Aramco Gulf Operations Company (AGOC) and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation subsidiary Kuwait Gulf Oil Company (KGOC) – has divided the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) scope for the Dorra gas production project into four packages: three offshore and one onshore.

MEED recently reported that KJO had awarded contracts for offshore packages 2A and 2B, along with onshore package 3, worth an estimated total of about $6.7bn.

US-based McDermott International secured offshore package 2A, valued at about $1.5bn, according to sources. The American contractor has yet to announce its contract award.

A consortium of India’s Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (L&TEH) and Italian contractor Saipem secured package 2B. Estimated at about $3.4bn, package 2B is the largest of the three offshore EPC packages under the Dorra field facilities project.

L&T described the contract won by its subsidiary, L&T Energy Hydrocarbon Offshore (LTEH Offshore), “from a prestigious client in the Middle East” as “an ultra-mega order”, a term the Mumbai-headquartered contractor uses to denote contracts valued at more than INR150bn (about $1.56bn).

The project involves the development of multiple offshore facilities, L&T said, without naming the Dorra field facilities project, identifying KJO as the client or elaborating on the scope of work.

LTEH Offshore will execute a scope encompassing engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) of offshore facilities, Bombay Stock Exchange-listed L&T said, adding that “a significant portion of the fabrication activities will be carried out at L&T’s integrated, world-class manufacturing and fabrication facilities”.

Saipem issued a similar statement, confirming the value of its portion of the contract at about $1.8bn.

MEED reported in March that the L&TEH/Saipem consortium had emerged as the lowest bidder for offshore package 2B.

Contractors submitted bids for offshore packages 2A and 2B by the 9 March deadline, MEED previously reported. Bid validity was understood to expire on 15 August, prompting KJO to issue letters of intent to the selected contractors earlier this month, sources previously said.

Separately, KJO has awarded the contract for onshore package 3 to Spanish contractor Tecnicas Reunidas, which MEED reported in March was the lowest bidder for the package.

In a filing with the Madrid Stock Exchange, Tecnicas Reunidas said it has accepted a letter of intent for an approximately $1.65bn contract to develop onshore gas facilities “for a major gas field development in the Middle East”. Under the EPC contract, Tecnicas Reunidas will be responsible for the development of onshore gas processing facilities required for the reception, treatment and export of gas produced from the field, the company said without divulging details.

Offshore package scopes

The detailed scope of EPC work on the two offshore packages of the Dorra gas field facilities project is as follows:

Package 2A – McDermott: Dorra gas field wellhead topsides, flowlines and umbilicals

  • Seven gas wellhead platforms or topsides, with production routed to the central gathering platform
  • Corrosion-resistant, alloy-lined intra-field flowlines and umbilicals connecting the gas wellhead platforms to the central gathering platform and the auxiliary platform

Package 2B – LTEH Offshore/Saipem: Dorra central gathering platform complex, export pipelines and cables

  • Central gathering platform
  • Auxiliary platform
  • Dorra accommodation platform
  • Flare platform
  • Bridge platform
  • Pipelines for gas and condensate transmission to each shareholder
  • Produced water pipeline from the central gathering platform to Al-Khafji field and from the planned onshore processing facility next to the Al-Zour refinery in Kuwait to Al-Khafji field
  • Recovered monoethylene glycol (MEG) pipeline from Al-Khafji field to the central gathering platform
  • Control and power system linking Al-Khafji onshore facilities to offshore units
  • Offshore central control room at Dorra accommodation platform.

Regarding the first offshore package, MEED reported in October last year that KJO awarded India’s L&TEH a contract estimated at $140m-$150m. Offshore package 1 covers the EPC of seven offshore jackets and the laying of intra-field pipelines.

Onshore package scope

The detailed scope of work on the only onshore package of the Dorra gas field facilities project, which has been secured by Tecnicas Reunidas, is as follows:

Package 3: Onshore gas processing facilities

  • Buildings to be constructed as part of KJO’s Dorra project onshore package include:
    • Dorra control building
    • Operator building
    • Operations, maintenance and engineering building
    • Process interface building
    • Onshore 115/69kV substation
    • Two gas-insulated substations
    • Warehouse
    • Maintenance building
    • Mosque
    • Telecommunications tower radio building
    • Beach valve substation at the planned onshore processing facility next to the Al-Zour refinery in Kuwait
       
  • Processing facilities for KJO’s onshore package:
    • Produced water receiving and treatment
    • Sour water stripping and treated water system
    • Rich MEG storage tank
    • MEG regeneration and reclamation
    • Recovered hydrocarbons system
    • Lean MEG storage and supply
    • Fresh MEG storage and supply
    • Beach valve stations at Al-Khafji and Al-Zour
       
  • Utilities:
    • Instrument and plant air system
    • Nitrogen generation system
    • Diesel storage and distribution system
    • Fuel gas system
    • Closed drain and slop tank system
    • Hazardous area open drains system
    • Industrial water system
    • Drinking water system
    • Flare gas recovery system and a low-pressure flare system
    • Fire water system
    • Emergency diesel generator
    • Sewage treatment

Discovered in 1965, the Dorra gas field is estimated to hold 20 trillion cubic metres of gas and 310 million barrels of oil.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have been pressing ahead with their plan to jointly produce 1 billion cubic feet a day (cf/d) of gas from the Dorra gas field.

The two countries have been producing oil from the Neutral Zone – primarily from the onshore Wafra field and offshore Khafji field – since at least the 1950s. With a growing need to increase natural gas production, they have been working to exploit the Dorra offshore field, understood to be the only gas field in the Neutral Zone.

However, progress has been hampered by a dispute over ownership of the Dorra gas field. Iran, which refers to the field as Arash, claims it partially extends into Iranian territory and asserts that Tehran should be a stakeholder in its development. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia maintain that the field lies entirely within their jointly administered Neutral Zone – also known as the Divided Zone – and that Iran has no legal basis for its claim.

In February 2024, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia reiterated their claim to the Dorra field in a joint statement issued during an official meeting in Riyadh between Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud.

France-based Technip Energies has performed the entire concept study and feed work on the overall Dorra gas field development programme.

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Indrajit Sen

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