State-owned Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) plans to launch tenders worth around 1.7 billion dinars ($6.41 billion) to attract international and local contractors, its managing director said in remarks published on Monday.

Sami Al-Rushaid told local daily Al-Rai that KOC aims to launch some 300 tenders for various projects.

About 70 percent of the deals will go to the local private sector, he said, adding that KOC had awarded 457 contracts worth 2.5 billion dinars to local and foreign firms in the past three years.

Rushaid added that Kuwait, the world's seventh-largest oil exporter, was studying alternatives in implementing a much-delayed multi-billion dollar plan, dubbed Project Kuwait, to explore some northern oil fields.

Project Kuwait has been discussed for more than a decade and never made it beyond committee level in parliament as some deputies have objected to the involvement of Western firms.

Rushaid did not elaborate, saying only Kuwait Petroleum Corp had resolved many of the objections raised by deputies. - Reuters