Sinopec, Kuwait to Sign $399 Million Oil Rigs Contract Today

By Fiona MacDonald

April 1 (Bloomberg) -- China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., the oil company known as Sinopec, will today sign a 116 million- dinar ($398.6 million) contract with Kuwait to build five oil rigs in the Gulf state, the nation’s state crude producer said.

“This is Sinopec’s first contract with KOC,” Kuwait Oil Co. Chairman Sami al-Rushaid said in a phone interview late yesterday from Kuwait City. “The rigs are medium-sized, three with 1,500 horsepower and two with 1,000 horsepower.”

Kuwait last year tendered, what al-Rushaid said was the “biggest tender” regionally, for 27 rigs. The country is now at the stage of awarding the contracts and signed a deal this week with a local company for eight rigs, al-Rushaid said. Work on the rigs will begin in the next six months.

The tender is part of Kuwait’s plan to boost oil output to 4 million barrels a day by 2020. The Persian Gulf nation, the fifth-largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, pumped 2.14 million barrels a day in February, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

To contact the reporter on this story: Fiona MacDonald in Kuwait at fmacdonald4@bloomberg.net