The revalidation of the front-end engineering and design (feed) work for the project to develop the disputed Dorra gas field will be completed within a couple of months, according to Sheikh Nawaf Saud Al Sabah, the chief executive of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC).“The design phase of the project will be completed in the next few months,” “We will soon take the investment decision to start work in the field and develop it.”Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are cooperating to develop the offshore field, which was originally discovered in 1965.The project is being executed on a fast-track basis.France’s Technip Energies is doing the feed revalidation, which could give it an advantage when it comes to the award of the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the project.Sheikh Nawaf recently said that KPC’s upstream subsidiary, Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), is seeking assistance from major international oil companies for offshore projects to enhance declining production capacity.Kuwait is looking to increase its production to more than four million barrels of oil a day (b/d) from 2.4 million b/d in February.Kuwait also plans to increase the volume of crude it processes in its refineries.The country is refining 1.4 million b/d and expects to increase that figure to 1.6 million b/d soon.Disputed territoryThe original feed for a project to develop the Dorra field was created over a decade ago. Due to changes in technology, it needs to be updated before the project can reach a final investment decision.Regional disputes have delayed the field’s development. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran, where it is known as Arash, claim stakes in the field.Saudi Arabia and Kuwait both claim that Iran has no legal basis for its claim. They plan to develop the resource jointly without Iran’s involvement.Sheikh Nawaf said that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait expect to produce about 1 billion standard cubic feet a day of gas from the asset and have agreed to split gas from the field equally between themselves.In September 2023, it was announced that Saudi Aramco and KPC had selected Technip Energies as the preferred contractor to carry out the pre-feed and feed work on the project to develop the disputed field.On 11 December 2022, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to jointly develop the Dorra gas field.Saudi Aramco subsidiary Aramco Gulf Operations Company and Kuwait Gulf Oil Company, a subsidiary of KPC, signed the MoU.The MoU followed a preliminary understanding that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait reached in March 2022 regarding the joint development of Dorra.Iran’s Foreign Ministry called the March 2022 agreement between Riyadh and Kuwait “illegal”. It said that cooperation with Tehran is required for any development project at the field. (ICE KUWAIT)

Fonte notizia: Meed