The Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC), a subsidiary of state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, has invited companies to bid for an operation and maintenance contract on its Al-Zour refinery.

Companies have until 14 October to submit bids for the job to provide services for the sulphur handling plant, tankage, marine facilities and the waste water treatment plant at the refinery complex.

Contractors that have been pre-qualified to bid are:

• Dietsmann Technologies (The Netherlands)
• Petrofac (UK)
• Spie Oil & Gas Services Middle East (UAE)
• Eprom (Egypt)
• Xi Operation & Maintenance Company (South Korea).

KIPIC has said it will hold a pre-tender meeting on 10 September.

The Al-Zour refinery will have the biggest refining capacity in the Middle East, and is designed to refine 615,000 barrels a day (b/d) at maximum capacity, increasing Kuwait’s national refining capacity to more than 1.5 million b/d.

US-based Fluor Corporation is doing the front-end engineering and design (feed) work on the project, which is estimated to be worth $18bn.

The refinery will produce high value products, and will predominantly produce low sulphur fuel oil to replace the high sulphur fuel oil that is presently used in local power generation plants.

Other refinery end products will include ultra-low sulphur diesel and kerosene, petrochemical naphtha, granulated sulphur and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).