OPEC member Kuwait has awarded five contracts for the clean-up of oil-polluted areas with a combined value of nearly $1.01 billion, an oil official has said.

The state-owned Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), which is in charge of the state’s upstream sector, will also award three more contracts within the next three months for similar operations in various parts of Kuwait, KOC’s Deputy CEO for Major Projects and Services Khalid Al-Otaibi said, quoted by the Arabic language daily Alrai on Friday.

Speaking during a seminar organised by KOC in Kuwait City, Otaibi said several companies from Kuwait and other countries have won those contracts, adding that the operations would be completed within four years.

“We are planning to sign three more oil clean-up contracts with a number of companies within two to three months,” Otaibi said.

According to Alrai, the five contracts for clean-up operations in areas hit by oil pollution due to the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait were awarded to four consortia.

A consortium grouping Khalid Al-Khorafi & Brothers and Lamor of Finland won a contract in North Kuwait worth $193 million and another one in South Kuwait with a value of around $196 million.

HEISCO Hangzhou Zaop, a joint Kuwaiti-Chinese venture won a contract in Southeast Kuwait with a value of $185 million while a $188 million contract in North Kuwait was awarded to consortium of Kuwait’s KCPC and ITC of Saudi Arabia.

A $250 million contract in Southeast Kuwait was awarded to an alliance of Kuwait’s Al-Sayer and WSR of Italy, according to the paper which said three other contracts covering oil producing areas in South Kuwait would be signed soon. /AT