PROJECTS: Kuwait scraps $400mln oil project: report

Kuwait has scrapped an awarded oil project with a value of around 120 million Kuwaiti dinars ($400 million) due to weak crude prices and the spread of Coronavirus, a newspaper in the OPEC member reported on Sunday.

The project involves the development of heavy crude oil facilities in the North and it was awarded to an international firm this year but the contract was not formally signed, the Arabic language daily Alrai said.

The state-owned Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) cancelled the contract in line with instructions by oil authorities to slash spending on projects due to weak crude prices and the spread of Coronavirus, the paper said, quoting KOC sources.

“KOC’s Board of Directors has decided to cancel the heavy crude project that involves 11 oil wells although it has been awarded recently,” the report said without naming the company that had won that contract.

It said KOC and other local oil firms intend to freeze more projects in line with instructions by the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation to slash capital expenditure after the Gulf emirate trimmed crude output by nearly one million bpd within an agreement by OPEC and its partners to cut supplies to prop up oil prices.
Source: Zawya