The local Gulf Spic Contracting Company is the frontrunner to win a KD9.2m ($31.9m) deal to build two new chimneys at a Kuwaiti refinery.

Gulf Spic submitted the lowest price for the deal in a 16 February bid round, according to documents from Kuwait’s Central Tenders Committee. The contract covers the design and construction of two 110-metre-high chimney stacks for a gas treatment unit at an unnamed refinery.

The company beat prices of KD9.4m from Heavy Engineering & Shipbuilding Company, KD9.5m from Al-Ghanim International and KD10.5m from Kharafi National, all local. No date has been set for an award.

The deal is being tendered by state refiner Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC), which has put out a series of multi-million-dollar contracts to bid in recent months. It hopes to tender construction contracts to build an estimated $15bn refinery at Al-Zour later in 2010.