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Kuwait Gulf Oil Company (KGOC), a subsidiary of state energy conglomerate Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), has set in motion a project to develop an onshore gas processing plant that will receive gas feedstock from the Dorra offshore gas field located in the Saudi-Kuwait Neutral Zone.

KGOC has started an early engagement process with contractors for the main engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) tendering exercise for the Dorra onshore gas processing facility, which is to be located in Kuwait, according to sources.

France-based Technip Energies is performing front-end engineering and design (feed) on the project, and is expected to complete the work by the end of the year, sources told MEED.

Based on the progress of the feed work, KGOC is expected to issue the main EPC tender for the Dorra onshore gas processing facility in September, as per sources.

The proposed facility will receive gas via a pipeline from the Dorra offshore field, which is being developed in a separate project by Al-Khafji Joint Operations (KJO) – a joint venture of KGOC and Saudi Aramco subsidiary Aramco Gulf Operations Company (AGOC).

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The planned KGOC facility will have the capacity to process up to 632 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) of gas and 88.9 million barrels a day of condensates from the Dorra field.

The KGOC onshore gas processing facility will be located in the vicinity of the Al-Zour refinery, owned by KPC subsidiary, Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (Kipic).

A 700,000 square-metre plot has been allocated next to the Al-Zour refinery for the gas processing facility and discussions about survey work are ongoing. The site will potentially need to be shored, backfilled and dewatered.

Shoring involves installing supporting infrastructure that prevents oil from collapsing or shifting. Backfilling involves filling any holes or voids on the site to provide stability to the area, and dewatering is the process of removing excess water from the site.

The planned onshore gas processing plant will also supply surplus gas to KPC’s upstream business Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) for possible injection into its oil fields.

Additionally, KGOC plans to award licensed technology contracts to US-based Honeywell UOP and Shell subsidiary Shell Catalysts & Technologies for the gas processing plant’s acid gas removal unit and sulphur recovery unit, respectively.

Dorra offshore gas field

The Dorra gas field, located in Gulf waters of the Saudi-Kuwait Neutral Zone, is estimated to hold 20 trillion cubic metres of gas and 310 million barrels of oil.

MEED reported in September 2023 that Aramco and KPC had selected Technip Energies to carry out pre-feed and feed work on the Dorra offshore field development project.

The original feed work for a project to develop the field was performed more than a decade ago. However, due to changes in technology, the engineering design needed to be updated before the project could reach a final investment decision.

KJO is understood to have issued the tenders for the Dorra offshore field development project in August last year. It has divided the scope of work on the Dorra gas field development project, which is estimated to be valued at up to $10bn, into four EPC packages – three offshore and one onshore.

The EPC scope of work on the Dorra gas field development project packages and their bid submission deadlines are as follows:

• Package 1: Seven offshore jackets and laying of intra-field lines – bids submitted on 2 June
• Package 2A: Seven production deck modules and associated corrosion-resistant, alloy-lined pipes connecting to the gas compression plant – 31 July
• Package 2B: Compression and auxiliary platforms, an accommodation platform, associated trunklines and cables connecting to the shoreline – 31 July
• Package 3: Onshore gas processing plant – 31 July

The following contractors are understood to be among those bidding for the three offshore packages:

• Lamprell (Saudi Arabia/UAE)
• Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (India)
• McDermott (US)
• NMDC Energy (UAE)
• Saipem (Italy)

Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have been collaborating to develop the offshore field since its discovery in 1965. The two sides expect to produce about 1 billion cubic feet a day of gas from the asset and have agreed to split the gas output equally.

A geopolitical tussle over ownership of the asset has hampered progress.

Iran, which calls the field Arash, claims that it partially extends into its territory and that Tehran should be a stakeholder in any development project. 

Kuwait and Saudi Arabia maintain that the Dorra field lies entirely in the waters of their shared territory, known as the Neutral Zone or Divided Zone, and that Iran has no legal basis for its claim. 

In February 2024, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia reiterated their claim over the Dorra field in a joint statement issued during an official meeting between Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud in Riyadh.

READ THE JULY 2025 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

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Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the July 2025 edition of MEED Business Review includes: