Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) is poised to announce KD56mn ($183mn) worth of drilling pipes supply contracts according to local daily Al Anbaa. The firm recently upped its requirements for drilling rigs from 44 to 63 as part of a five-year program to reverse oil production capacity losses and bring it all the way up to 3.5mn b/d by 2025 (MEES, 1 April). Anbaa sources say that KOC is “finalizing the last steps to announce the winning companies” with the country’s Central Agency For Public Tenders (CAPT). Parent company KPC signed an MoU with Japan’s Nexi to fund projects for the firm and its subsidiaries last month as part of a five-year $40bn borrowing plan (MEES, 8 April).