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Kuwait Oil Company in talks with shortlisted players for first three cleanup contracts, with separate
awards intended to test technology.
Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) is negotiating with up to a dozen soil remediation and oil recovery
specialists on shortlists for three initial contracts that will open the way for hundreds of
bigger contracts to clean up toxic oil lakes dating from 1991.
Vahe Petrossian London 11 November 2011 01:13 GMT
The hopeful bidders for the three relatively routine jobs worth a total of $150 million to $300 million are being limited
to one contract each.
The winners are expected to be selected before the end of the year.
“Some of the bidders were hoping to get all three contracts, but KOC wants to be able to test as many different
technologies as possible ahead of the oil lakes tenders,” a source said.
The oil lakes were formed two decades ago when the late Saddam Hussain’s Iraqi occupation army torched nearly all
of the country’s oilfields.
The cleanup of the oil lakes, which would cost several billion dollars and take between 10 and 20 years to complete,
is expected to be tendered in the second half of 2012, after the selected contractors at the three initial sites are able
to start operations, the source said.
Details of the talks on all three packages are not available, but a source said the smallest of the three packages,
worth about $60 million, is being negotiated with Hera Group of Spain as low bidder and Norwegian-Canadian Sar-
Corre Mena as one of the higher bidders.
GS Engineering of South Korea and Environmental Chemical of the US are also in negotiations.
Teri of India, Arcadis GMI of the UK and Tetra Tech of the US are also among the bidders for the other two
packages.
Those going for all three packages in August had quoted overall prices ranging between $150 million and $300
million.
A minority of the companies had quoted for only one of the packages.
Hera and fellow low bidders have a clear starting edge with KOC, but leading specialists such as Sar-Corre, which
have quoted higher prices, have invested considerable funds in setting up pilot facilities in Kuwait.
Retreating Iraqi troops torched more than 800 oil wells 20 years ago.
It took nine months to extinguish all the fires and stop the spillages in 1991.
It is estimated that nearly 5 million barrels per day of oil per day were lost, more than twice the production of Kuwait
at the time.
A significant amount of that oil could be recovered by some of the more sophisticated remediation and recovery
technologies.
Published: 11 November 2011 01:13 GMT | Last updated: 11 November 2011 01:13 GMT