Saudi Aramco has received bids from contractors for the port dredging and reclamation works at the Jizan Economic City (JEC) in the southwest of the kingdom.

Four groups have been submitted bids for the scheme, which is being fast-tracked in order to get the port facilities completed before the $7bn Jizan refinery becomes operational.

The four bidders are:

• Boskalis Westminster/Al-Rushaid Company (Netherlands/local)
• China Harbour Engineering Arabia (China)
• Jan De Nul (Belgium)
• Van Oord Dredging & Marine Contractors/Six Construct (Netherlands/Belgium)

Saudi Aramco received bids on June 30 and have now opened both the technical and commercial bids with a view to making an award in early August.

“This is a vital package for the Jizan refinery because it needs to be completed by mid-2015,” says a source familiar with the project. “Then much of the heavy machinery needed for the refinery will be able to be shipped in and installed.”

MEED reported in May that the scope of works will include dredging a channel to the port, building a 12-kilometre breakwater, a jetty as well as large-scale reclamation. The amount of dredging required is estimated at about 30 million cubic metres.

The project is being tendered on a lump-sum, procure and build (LSPB) basis and sources say that the US’ KBR has been working on the tender for several months.

“This is likely to be the only major dredging works contract available in the kingdom this year so be prepared for some aggressive pricing from the contenders,” says the source.

The project was initially meant to be carried out by the original developers of the JEC, the local Saudi Binladin Group and Malaysia’s MMC Corporation, but the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (Sagia) dropped them from the project in early April.  

MEED reported in March 2012 that Aramco was to take over the major infrastructure projects at JEC in order to speed up their development.