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Saudi Arabia and Kuwait accelerate Dorra gas field development

11 September 2025

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are pressing ahead with their ambitious plan to jointly produce 1 billion cubic feet a day (cf/d) of gas from the Dorra gas field, located in the waters of their shared Neutral Zone.

Three major, multibillion-dollar projects launched by subsidiaries of Saudi Aramco and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) to produce and process gas from the Dorra field have gathered pace since the beginning of the year.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait 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, both countries have been working to exploit the Dorra offshore field, understood to be the only gas field in the Neutral Zone.

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

KJO offshore and onshore facilities

Al-Khafji Joint Operations (KJO), which is jointly owned by Aramco subsidiary Aramco Gulf Operations Company (AGOC) and KPC subsidiary Kuwait Gulf Oil Company (KGOC), is moving forward with its Dorra gas field facilities project. KJO has divided the project’s scope of work into four engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) packages – three offshore and one onshore.

Indian contractor Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (L&TEH) is the frontrunner for package 1 of the Dorra facilities project, which covers the EPC of seven offshore jackets and the laying of intra-field pipelines.

Contractors are currently preparing to submit bids by 27 September for the remaining three packages — offshore packages 2A and 2B, and onshore package 3.

The EPC scope of work for package 2A includes Dorra gas field wellhead topsides, flowlines and umbilicals. Package 2B involves the central gathering platform complex, export pipelines and cables. Package 3 includes the EPC of onshore gas processing facilities.

KGOC onshore processing facilities

KGOC has initiated early engagement with contractors for the main EPC tendering process for a planned Dorra onshore gas processing facility, which is to be located in Kuwait.

The proposed facility will receive gas via a pipeline from the Dorra offshore field, which is being separately developed by KJO. The complex will have the capacity to process up to 632 million cf/d of gas and 88.9 million barrels a day of condensates from the Dorra field.

The facility will be located near the Al-Zour refinery, owned by another KPC subsidiary, Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (Kipic).

A 700,000-square-metre plot has been allocated next to the Al-Zour refinery for the gas processing facility, and discussions regarding survey work are ongoing. The site may require shoring, backfilling and dewatering.

The onshore gas processing plant will also supply surplus gas to KPC’s upstream business, Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), for possible injection into its oil fields.

Additionally, KGOC plans to award licensed technology contracts to US-based Honeywell UOP and Shell subsidiary Shell Catalysts & Technologies for the plant’s acid gas removal unit and sulphur recovery unit, respectively.

AGOC onshore Khafji gas plant

Meanwhile, AGOC has issued main tenders for seven EPC packages as part of a project to construct the Khafji gas plant, which will process gas from the Dorra field onshore Saudi Arabia.

Contractors have been set deadlines of 24 October for technical bid submissions and 9 November for commercial bids.

The seven EPC packages cover a wide range of works, including open-art and licensed process facilities, pipelines, industrial support infrastructure, site preparation, overhead transmission lines, power supply systems, and main operational and administrative buildings.

France-based Technip Energies has carried out concept study and front-end engineering and design (feed) work on the entire Dorra gas field development programme.

However, progress has been hampered by a geopolitical 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.

Since that show of strength and unity, projects targeting production and processing of gas from the Dorra field have gained momentum.

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Indrajit Sen

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