Kuwait’s Central Tenders Committee (CTC) has pushed back the deadline for bid submissions for its long-awaited $16bn-plus Clean Fuels Project (CFP) by a month to 24 December.

The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) deal was first tendered in April, with technical and commercial bids due to be submitted to state-owned refiner Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) on 10 November.

Seven groups have been prequalified to bid for the CFP packages. The joint-venture leaders are:

• Chiyoda (Japan)
• Fluor (US)                                          
• JGC Corporation (Japan)
• KBR (US)
• Petrofac (UK)
• Saipem (Italy)
• Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain)

The CFP covers the upgrade of Kuwait’s Mina al-Ahmadi and Mina Abdullah refineries, boosting their combined capacity to 800,000 barrels a day (b/d) from 736,000 b/d currently. The scheme has been split into three packages, with prequalified consortiums only permitted to bid on a maximum of two packages. Two sections cover the Mina Abdullah facility, while the third is for the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery.