Kuwait’s Central Tenders Committee (CTC) has pushed back the closing date for technical and commercial proposals for a major deal to build a series of oil and gas pipelines across the country.

Contractors have now been given until 27 April to hand in their bids, a week later than the 20 April deadline set in March. The bidders were supposed to submit proposals to Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) for the estimated $2bn deal on 21 March, but a number of firms asked for an eight week extension to prepare (MEED 21:3:10).

Bids are expected from Daelim Corporation, GS Engineering & Construction, SK Engineering & Construction, all of South Korea, and Italy’s Saipem.

The winning firm will build a series of pipelines, including low sulphur pipelines, running from the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery to power plants across the country. The Mina al-Ahmadi refinery is located approximately 45 kilometres south of Kuwait City. The pipelines will provide feedstock to power plants at Doha East and West, Subiya, Shuaiba and Al-Zour.

The deal is broken down into two phases: The first phase involves the installation of three 48-inch pipelines, and one 40-inch pipeline. The second part of the project covers the construction of a pumping station at Mina al-Ahmadi.