The bid deadline has been extended for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for a project to build a desalter train in Kuwait.

The project, estimated to be worth $250m, has already been subject to several deadline extensions. The most recent extension moved the submission date from 1 April to 17 April.

Six international contractors attended the pre-tender meeting on 14 January to discuss the planned desalter train. They were:

• SK E&C (South Korea)
• Saipem (Italy)
• Petrofac (UK)
• L&T (India)
• SNC-Lavalin (Canada)
• Samsung Engineering (South Korea)

The project client is state-owned upstream operator Kuwait Oil Company (KOC). KOC is planning to install the desalter train in four separate portions at the gathering centres known as GC-09, GC-10, GC-19 and GC-21.

Desalter units remove salts including calcium, sodium and magnesium chlorides that are dissolved in the water mixed with crude oil. If these compounds are not removed from the oil, it can cause problems during the refining process, including the formation of corrosive hydrochloric acid and deposits that can block heat exchangers.