Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) has awarded a contract worth $260 million to replace oil pipelines to a South Korean firm, a report said.

KOC announced in a statement that South Korea's Daelim Industrial Company would replace nine oil pipelines linking Kuwait's southern storage tanks and northern storages, according to the official Kuna news agency.

The project is due to be completed by April 2010.

In March, KOC also signed with another South Korean company, SK Engineering and Construction (SKEC), a contract worth $613.7 million, which involves a new oil gathering centre.