Mega-Tenders Due from Kuwait's $15 Billion Refinery Project

Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Kuwait's new Al-Zour refinery, which will involve an investment of up to $15 billion and have a capacity of 615,000 barrels per day (BBL/d), is to take major bids in May. These tenders will cover the construction of the refinery complex. Contracts are scheduled to be signed early in 2015.

When the refinery starts operations in late 2018 or early 2019, it will produce a range of products, such as diesel, kerosene and naphtha for export, and low-sulfur fuel oil for domestic power stations. Kuwait will export about 340,000 BBL/d of oil products from the refinery, mainly to Europe and Asia, and 225,000 BBL/d of fuel oil will be used in local power stations.

The Al-Zour project is an element of Kuwait's $106 billion development plan, which was launched in 2010. The country's pipeline of mega projects is designed to attract foreign investors who have been inhibited by political instability and bureaucracy.

Khaled Al-Awadhi, manager of the Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) project, said that three mega tenders are set for May. The tenders will be for the main process units, secondary process units, and a utilities and offsite package. KNPC will select the winning bids by the end of 2014, and it expects to sign contracts in the first quarter of 2015.

KNPC earlier signed a $55 million contract with Van Oord (Rotterdam, Netherlands) to prepare the site for construction. KNPC also opened two tenders for marine work and tankage.

The new project will increase Kuwait's total refinery capacity to 1.45 million BBL/d and allow it to shut down its oldest Shuaiba refinery, which has a capacity of 200,000 BBL/d.

For related information, see December 6, 2013, article - Kuwait National Petroleum Company Awards Honeywell Major Contract for Al Zour Refinery.

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