Bechtel to Head Kuwait Repairs, Paper Reports

Bechtel Group, the giant San Francisco contracting firm, “has been granted what amounts to a letter of intent to manage the reconstruction of the oil and gas industry” in Kuwait, according to a news report Monday in London.

The Financial Times said Bechtel “has agreed in principle to include the U.K. subsidiaries of four other groups in its plans to repair Kuwaiti oil and gas facilities.” Three of those named are units of U.S. firms: McDermott International, Irvine-based Fluor Corp. and Foster Wheeler Corp. The fourth, TPL, is owned by an Italian firm. No British-owned firms have been asked to share in the work, the paper said.

A Bechtel spokesman in London confirmed that the company is discussing the restoration of oil production facilities with the Kuwaitis but would not say how advanced the talks were.

When reached at Bechtel’s San Francisco headquarters, spokesman Mike Kidder would neither confirm nor deny the newspaper report, saying: “I have no information on that.”

But Kidder acknowledged that the Kuwaiti government approached Bechtel in early January about the possible repair of the country’s damaged oil facilities once hostilities in the area cease.

“We’ve been meeting with them for several weeks,” Kidder said. “It is my understanding that they (the Kuwaiti government) are meeting with other construction firms.”

Kidder said the firms include Parsons Corp. in Pasadena and Fluor, Kidder said the Army Corps of Engineers may also get involved in rebuilding the oil facilities.

Times staff writer Jube Shiver in Los Angeles contributed to this report.