Amec Foster Wheeler to upgrade Kuwait Oil Company’s oil gathering centre GC-24

UK-based Amec Foster Wheeler has secured a front end engineering design (FEED) contract to upgrade Kuwait Oil Company’s (KOC) Oil Gathering Centre GC-24.

Amec said that the latest project will continue its work with KOC on various projects since 2004.

KOC had recently added three new gathering centres and strategic pipeline projects in North Kuwait.

Amec Foster Wheeler Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa and Southern Europe business group president Roberto Penno said: "Kuwait Oil Company is one of our key customers and this further strengthening of our working partnership follows our success in delivering projects for them and management of the original GC-24 Project, which was completed six months ahead of schedule."

KOC is planning to increase oil production by up to one million barrels of oil per day by 2020, and has plans to continue this for ten years.

The project is expected to improve the existing GC-24 facility and increase its capacity by 50,000 barrels of oil per day from 165,000 barrels of oil per day.

The company will also optimise existing facilities to cater for the expected high level of water in the mix of crude oil and gas.

KOC operating oilfields originally had 26 gathering centres.

The first centre ‘GC-1’ was commissioned on 7 June 1946 at Burgan Oilfield and on September 1980 the last centre ‘GC-26’ was commissioned at the Ratqa oilfield.

At present, 21 gathering centres are operational and receive crude from various wellheads located in the producing oilfields.