Business & Finance Club - Al Khobar : A service contract for an oilfield Saudi Arabia shares with Kuwait is likely to be split between two of the largest oil services firms Schlumberger and Halliburton, industry sources said.

Neither company was available to comment.

The contract, held by Schlumberger since 2005, expired last year, but was renewed until May this year.    

Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Weatherford International and Schlumberger bid for the deal, which has an estimated value of around $300 million.

Under the new three-year contract, the winning company would provide services including directional drilling at Khafji.

'Unofficially, the tender will be split between Schlumberger and Halliburton,' one source close to the deal said.

Kuwait said in April that the two countries had boosted output capacity from the shared zone to 610,000 barrels per day from around 550,000 bpd.

But it said the two Opec producers had pulled back from long-term plans plans to further boost capacity to 700,000 to 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) by 2030 as the fields in the zone are declining.

Both countries are expected to decide whether to go ahead with a development plan in mid-2011.