State-run oil and gas giant Saudi Aramco has invited firms to submit bids by mid-October for an estimated $250m-300m contract to build a bulk plant for storage of oil products in Jeddah, sources familiar with the matter said.

A Saudi Arabia-based EPC contractor said the Aramco could extend the bid deadline for the North Jeddah Bulk plant to give contractors more time to prepare their bids after the Eid holidays. Another industry source said the client may not extend deadline as it did in the case of Hail Bulk Plant project, bids for which went in on schedule despite requests from pre-qualified contractors’ requests for extensions.

Aramco is already planning to construct pipelines connecting Yanbu to North Jeddah on the kingdom’s Red Sea coast. It is understood to have awarded the estimated $300m EPC contract to Turkey’s Tekfen, sources told MEED on 18 September.

The two pipelines will transport oil products including gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from the refining hub of Yanbu to Jeddah.

Several companies including UAE’s Dodsal, Egypt’s Engineering for the Petroleum & Process Industries (Enppi), India’s Larsen & Toubro, local Nesma & Partners, Italy’s Saipem, had submitted bids for EPC deal on 18 May.

Aramco is also planning to build a new bulk plant at Hail with an estimated cost of $300m to store gasoline and diesel and distribute the products to the surrounding region and several contractors have been asked to submit bids for the EPC contract.

Tekfen is also understood to have been selected for the estimated $300m pipeline project to connect the Qassim area to bulk plant in Hail region, sources told MEED on 4 September. The bids for pipeline, which will run 220 kilometres to transport gasoline and diesel, were submitted on 31 May.