Kuwait’s Central Tenders Committee (CTC) has approved a KD50.6m ($177.5m) contract with South Korea’s Daelim Industrial for the construction of new refinery units ahead of the planned $16bn-plus Clean Fuels Project (CFP).

Daelim Industrial submitted the lowest price in early May, beating rival proposals from India’s Larsen & Toubro and fellow South Koreans, SK Engineering & Construction.

The CTC, which monitors Kuwait’s public tenders approved the deal on 17 June. A contract is expected to be signed within a month.

The deal covers the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) of new units for state refiner Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC). These include a fluid catalytic convertor and sour water treatment unit at the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery. It comes under the same umbrella as the giant CFP, but is separate from the main packages.

On 30 May, Daelim Industrial signed a $516m contract with KNPC to build new sulphur-handling and ship-loading facilities at the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery. Due to be completed in 2015, the project will raise Kuwait’s sulphur production to 2 million tonnes a year (t/y) from around 850,000 t/y currently.