The project will be implemented in five phases and the contracts are likely to be signed this month.

Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) has awarded its largest environmental project for cleaning polluted soil at a total cost of more than KD1 billion ($3.31 billion) to various local and international companies, reported Arab Times, citing senior sources.

The project, which is considered to be one of the largest in the world, will be implemented in five phases and the contracts are likely to be signed this month, stated the report citing sources in Kuwait’s Central Agency for Public Tenders (CAPT).

The two major stages of the project are North Kuwait Drilling, Transport and Processing Project and the South Kuwait Exploration, Transport and Processing Project which will together treat 13 million cu m of oil contaminated soil, stated the report. This is related to soil damage, including lakes, moist and dry oil and oil-contaminated piles. The region covers 114 sq km of land contaminated with crude oil as a result of the destruction of about 700 oil wells in Kuwait.

North Kuwait Drilling, Transport and Processing Project is divided into two sites with a total value of $381.58 million, said the Arab Times report.

The first site (Zone One) contract worth $193.58 million was awarded to the alliance of Khaled Ali Al Kharafi and Brothers for Construction Contracting and Lamor Corporation, while the Zone Two work was awarded to Kuwaiti Company for Plant Construction and Contracting and Environmental Technology Management Company for a total amount of $188 million.

On the South Kuwait Drilling, Transport and Processing project, CAPT sources said the Zone One contract has been awarded to the alliance of Khaled Ali Al Kharafi and Brothers for Construction Contracting and Lamor Corporation valued at $196.53 million, while Zone Two contract has been clinched by the Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Company in alliance with Zaopin valued at $185.23 million.