Kuwait is expected to retender the contract to construct feed pipelines for its new refinery by late February, according to sources close to the project.

The Supreme Petroleum Council had cancelled the tender first issued in 2014, after the  Council of Ministers began probing allegations of corruption among contractors.

MEED reported that state upstream operator Kuwait Oil Company had submitted a request to the council, for a retender, after Central Tenders Committee (CTC) chose Dodsal Group as the lowest bidder on the project.

The new council had opposed the award of the project to the UAE-based engineering and construction company, which had submitted a bid of $868m, accusing it of delaying work it had previously undertaken in the country.

In 2014, India’s Larsen & Toubro submitted the lowest bid of KD230m ($753m) and then withdrew from the tender citing the failure of its local partner Joint Scientific Group to extend its bank guarantee.

KOC had requested a retendering of the project in 2014, however, the CTC rejected the request leaving the next lowest bidders Dodsal as well as Petrofac in running for the project.

The feed pipelines package is the last phase of the estimated $17bn New Refinery Project, which has been designed by downstream operator Kuwait National Petroleum Company to produce low sulphur fuel oil by processing heavy crude.