They include Italy's Snamprogetti and Technip, South Korea's GS Engineering and Construction, SK Engineering and Construction, Hyundai Engineering and Construction and Hyundia Heavy Industries.
They also include Japan's JGC, UAE-based Petrofac International, France's Saipem and Britain's Foster Wheeler Energy and WGI Middle East.
The project to construct the 615,000 (bpd) state-of-the-art refinery has been divided into four major parts - two manufacturing units, utilities and services, and finally storage tanks and a pier.
The first round of bids was scrapped because tenders made came in at around $15bn, way above the initial budget of $6.3bn. The emirate's Supreme Petroleum Council, the highest oil authority, last week agreed to increase the budget to 4bn dinars ($14.3bn), the second rise in a few months.
The new contract will be based on a cost plus profit margin, which means Kuwait paying the cost of the project to the successful bidder plus an agreed profit, Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) chairman Sami Al Rasheed said.
Construction is due to start in one year or 18 months, with the refinery to come on stream by the end of the first quarter of 2012, he said. Completion was originally planned for 2010.
KNPC is also planning a multi-billion-dollar project to modernise two of its three refineries at Al Ahmadi and Mina Abdullah, which currently have a combined capacity of just over 700,000bpd.
Via: Gulf Daily News
KUWAIT|
