Contractors continue to wait for an award on the estimated $3bn project to upgrade Abu Dhabi’s Ruwais refining operations to handle additional offshore crude.

The companies submitted commercial engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) bids in December 2015, and the project owner, state-owned Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company (Takreer), is still deciding on an award.

South Korea’s GS Engineering & Construction submitted the lowest commercial bid out of the three firms vying for the tender, according to sources. The other two firms bidding for the deal are South Korea’s Samsung Engineering and Spain-based Tecnicas Reunidas.

Takreer is planning to upgrade existing units at the Ruwais refinery site in the far west of Abu Dhabi. The work will include modifying existing units in order to process 420,000 barrels a day (b/d) of offshore crude.

The work will include upgrades on units completed in the Ruwais refinery expansion project, which was commissioned in 2015 and which doubled the existing capacity of the site to more than 800,000 b/d.