Bidding contractors on the $800m-feed pipeline for the Al-Zour New Refinery Project have renewed their bid bonds for the project, according to sources.

The bid bonds were renewed on 28 March and will be valid for three months.

The renewal of the bid bonds come amid rumours that state upstream operator Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) is mulling retendering the project.

“This pipeline is closely linked to the Al-Zour refinery project, if we see substantial delays to the refinery project then the pipeline may well be retendered,” said one source that works for an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor connected to the project.

There has been increasing speculation over recent months that one or more packages of the $14bn Al-Zour New Refinery Project (NRP) will be retendered after low bids for the scheme’s unawarded packages came in $4.2bn over budget.

The NRP will see a 615,000-barrel-a-day (b/d) refinery constructed on a greenfield site in the Divided Zone, which is shared with Saudi Arabia, and has a long history of delays and setbacks.

Since it was first announced in 2005, the scheme has been tendered twice. It saw contracts awarded on the second occasion, but they were cancelled before construction started by the Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC), a government agency that is charged with oversight of the country’s energy sector.

In October 2013, India’s Larsen & Toubro allowed its bid bond for the NRP pipeline project to expire, effectively withdrawing its low bid, worth $814m, to carry out engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) work for a new pipeline.

Dodsal is the second-lowest bidder and is expected to be awarded the contract if it is not retendered.

The original bidders list was:

• Larsen & Toubro (India) $814m
• Dodsal (Dubai) $922m
• Eni Saipem (Italy) $946m
• Daelim Industrial (South Korea) $959m
• Petrofac (UK) $1bn

The contract’s scope includes the construction of about 250 kilometres of oil feedstock pipelines that will serve the planned 615,00 b/d greenfield Al-Zour New Refinery in southern Kuwait.

Follow Wil Crisp on Twitter: @bilgribs