The signing ceremony for the contracts to build Kuwait’s Al-Zour New Refinery Project is due to be held on 13 October, according to a source close to the project.

“Documents are being processed with the signing expected to take place on Tuesday,” the source said.

The comments come amid reports in local media that Kuwait’s Oil Minister, Ali Saleh al-Omair, may have ordered the contract signing to be postponed.

“Despite the reports in local media, companies connected to the contracts are still preparing for the ceremony, which is due to take place on 13 October,” the source said.

Kuwait is planning to sign the contracts for the project’s five engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts all in the same ceremony.

The five Al-Zour Refinery EPC contracts have a total value of $13bn.

The final EPC contract on the project was awarded to a consortium of Italy’s Saipem and India’s Essar in August.

The package, known as package four, is worth KD475m ($1.57bn) and includes the construction of tanks, piping and underground works.

The winners of packages one, two, three and five, worth a total of $11.5bn, were named on 28 July by Kuwait’s Central Tenders Committee (CTC).

Package one consists of a process plant and has been awarded to the low-bidder, a joint venture of Technicas Reunidas (Spain), Sinopec Engineering (China), and Hanwha E&C (South Korea).

Package two, which consists of a process plant, and package three, which consists of offsites and utilities, were both won by a joint venture of Fluor (US), Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea), and Daewoo Engineering (South Korea).

The EPC contracts for packages one and two are worth a total of KD1,745m.

Package five comprises marine facilities and was awarded to a consortium of Hyundai E&C (South Korea), SK E&C (South Korea) and Saipem (Italy).

The contract for package five is worth KD454m.