Meed | KJO selects contractors for Dorra gas project offshore packages

KJO selects contractors for Dorra gas project offshore packages

12 August 2026

Al-Khafji Joint Operations (KJO) has selected contractors for two major offshore packages under its multibillion-dollar Dorra field facilities development project. The Dorra gas field is located in the waters of the Saudi-Kuwait Neutral Zone.

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

US-based McDermott International has secured offshore package 2A, valued at about $1.5bn, according to sources.

A consortium of India’s Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (L&TEH) and Italian contractor Saipem has secured package 2B, sources told MEED. Estimated at about $3.7bn, package 2B is the largest of the three offshore EPC packages under the Dorra field facilities project.

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 said.

Offshore package scopes

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

Package 2A – 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: 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.

Separately, KJO is understood to be holding discussions for package 3 with Spanish contractor Tecnicas Reunidas, which emerged as the lowest bidder, as MEED reported in March. Sources said a final client decision on the award is pending.

Onshore package scope

The scope of work on the only onshore package of the Dorra gas field facilities project 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.

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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