At least seven companies have shown interest in participating in the planned tender for a Kuwait Gulf Oil Company (KGOC) project to develop an onshore gas plant, according to industry sources.

The project budget is estimated to be $3.3bn and the last meeting with contractors to discuss the project took place in Kuwait on 10 February.

Previous meetings with contractors took place at the offices of Technip Energies in Abu Dhabi.

Contractors that have sent representatives to the meetings include:

• Samsung E&A (South Korea)
• Larsen & Toubro (India)
• Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain)
• Saipem (Italy)
• Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Hyundai Engineering Company (South Korea)
• JGC (Japan)

At the last meeting, contractors were told that the invitation to bid is currently scheduled to be issued at the end of March.

It was also confirmed that Kuwait’s Central Agency for Public Tenders (Capt) will not be involved in the tender process.

Capt is supposed to review technical and commercial evaluations of bids and verify that bidding is competitive. It is understood that not requiring Capt to approve this tender will speed up the tender process.

The plant will have the capacity to process up to 632 million cubic feet a day of gas and 88.9 million barrels a day of condensates from the Dorra offshore field, located in Gulf waters in the Saudi-Kuwait Neutral Zone.

In July last year, MEED reported that KGOC had initiated the project by launching an early engagement process with contractors for the main engineering, procurement and construction tender.

France-based Technip Energies completed the contract for the front-end engineering and design. The facility will be developed next to Kuwait’s Al-Zour refinery.