State-owned Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (Kipic) has postponed the pre-tender meeting it was scheduled to hold with prequalified contractors preparing to bid for two key packages of its $10bn Al-Zour Petrochemical complex.

Kipic will now meet contractors vying for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts for the third olefins complex package and the Aromatics 2 complex deal, on 4 October as opposed to 26 September.

Both packages are estimated to be worth $4bn each.

MEED reported that Kipic has also extended the deadline for submission of prequalification documents for both the big-ticket packages to 22 November.

EPC firms now also have until 27 September to make enquiries about the bidding process with the client.

The UK’s Wood Group is carrying out the front-end engineering and design (feed) work for the project.

Feed work for the planned petrochemicals plant was initially expected to be completed at the end of June 2018, but has been delayed.

Honeywell UOP was announced as the technology provider for the project in November.

The petrochemicals facility will be integrated with the $20bn New Refinery Project undertaken by Kipic in Al-Zour downstream complex. When completed, it will be the largest integrated refinery and petrochemicals plant in Kuwait.

It will produce aromatics and propylene and is a key part of Kuwait’s broader industrial strategy.

The petrochemicals project includes a 50,000 barrels a day (b/d) residue fluid catalytic cracking complex with ethylene and propylene recovery, a 24,000 b/d gasoline desulphurisation unit and two units to treat propane for propylene production.

It will be capable of converting butane to isobutane and producing clean-fuels blending components including methyl tert-butyl ether.

The facility will include a 66,000 b/d continuous catalyst regeneration platforming unit with a 74,000 b/d naphtha hydro-treater to make gasoline blend stock.

The aromatics complex will have the capacity to make 1.4 million tonnes of paraxylene a year.

A propane dehydrogenation unit will produce 660,000 tonnes a year of polymer-grade propylene.