Making his debut at Abu Dhabi’s flagship Adipec energy conference, Kuwaiti Oil Minister Mohammed al-Fares called on the industry to invest in boosting oil and gas production capacity to ensure security of supply. Kuwait itself has struggled to offset capacity declines in recent years, but this week state upstream firm Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) awarded two key contracts.

Some six months after announcing the initial bids, KOC this week awarded the much-anticipated Jurassic Production Facilities (JPF4 & JPF5) to Chinese oil and gas engineering firm Jereh and local Kuwaiti contractor Spetco. The key reason behind the delay appears to be that KOC has spent the past six months successfully pushing down the price of the projects. (CONTINUED - 702 WORDS)