State-owned downstream operator Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) has tendered a contract to overhaul facilities on an offshore structure at the Mina Abdullah refinery.

The contract to revamp facilities on Mab Sea Island was tendered on 27 July. An initial meeting about the project is due to take place on 5 August.

The deadline for bid submission is set for 26 August.

The Mab Sea Island structure is used for berthing 250,000-deadweight-tonnage (DWT) tankers, while loading crude oil and refined products from the Mina Abdullah refinery complex.

The structure comprises a series of linked piled jacket structures forming the loading platform, berthing and mooring dolphins.

In April this year, KNPC announced that it had started the long-awaited process of merging with Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (Kipic).

The merger of the two state-owned oil companies is part of a larger scheme to restructure the subsidiaries of the national oil company, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC).