Kuwait's $9 billion plan to raise output from its northern oilfields is likely to be approved by the end of the year with contracts to be awarded within six months, according to Energy Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah.

"Project Kuwait will be approved by the end of this year," he said, speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Jordan.
Once approved, the tender would be announced immediately with contracts likely to be awarded within four to six months, he said. "It can go directly to tender because everything is ready."
Kuwait hopes to tap western technology and expertise to raise production at the fields.
Three consortia of international oil firms, led by BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, are competing to implement the plan. "We'll be bidding on Project Kuwait if the price is right," said James LeJeune, Chevron's president for Middle East and North Africa.
Chevron is leading a consortium that includes France's Total, Petro-Canada, Russia's Sibneft and China's Sinopec.
Project Kuwait was originally launched in 1998 and envisaged doubling output from five northern oil fields near the border with Iraq - Rawdatain, Sabrya, Ratga, Adali and Bahra.
Kuwait, a member of Opec, currently produces around 2.4 million barrels per day (bpd).
Sheikh Ahmad said the government hopes that work on the plan, which aims to boost output from four major northern fields to some 900,000 bpd from 530,000 bpd, would start before the end of the year.
A Kuwaiti parliamentary committee recently approved the huge oilfield development project.
"The committee has unanimously approved the northern oilfields development draft law," Abdulwahab Al Haroun, who heads the finance and economic committee, said recently.
He was speaking after a meeting between the committee and Sheikh Ahmad.
The minister said the government plans to seek full parliamentary approval for the plan.
"The government will like to see the project started by the end of the year if parliament passes the law before the end of the current legislative term," the minister said.
Haroun said the draft law covered only four oilfields at Rawdatain, Sabrya, Ratga, Adali and two reservoirs. "Other oilfields in the north are not included in the draft. The development of the other oilfields will require another law," he added.
The minister said the period of development is a non-renewable 20 years.
"Another law must be passed to give a specific timeframe for additional years if the government finds that the 20-period is not enough," he added.
The committee has decided to refer the plan to the national assembly.
Kuwait pumps around 2.3 million bpd and aims to increase output to four million bpd by 2020. Originally, the project aimed to boost northern oil output from a mid-1990s level of 450,000 barrels per day to 900,000 barrels per day.
However, state production arm Kuwait Oil Company has since boosted actual northern production to around 520,000 barrels per day and is expected to increase it to a capacity of 810,000 barrels per day once a newly rebuilt oil gathering centre is ramped up in scheduled stages between September and December.
Al Haroun said the parliamentary committee had either modified or added 11 key points to the unanimously approved measure.
The winning international consortium will enter directly into the technical services agreement with a newly formed development subsidiary established by Kuwait Petroleum Corporation specifically for the project.
The total period of the contract will extend for 20 years, and after 20 years all facilities and utilities installed by the foreign companies will become Kuwaiti property.
"It will not be allowed to have a 10-year extension to the project as was previously proposed," said Al Haroun, noting that such an extension could only be granted through a new law approved by the parliament.
National labour force percentages on the project have been raised to 80 per cent and the income tax to be levied on the foreign companies was set at 25 per cent.