Kuwait-based Gulf Spic General Trading & Contracting Company has won a KD29.6m ($97m) contract to build facilities for the treatment of liquid sulphur at the Al-Ahmadi refinery in Kuwait.

The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract was awarded by state-oowned refining group Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC), according to the official Kuwait News Agency (Kuna).

Gulf Spic was revealed to be the second lowest bidder on the EPC tender for the project when prices were revealed in October. China’s Sinopec submitted a much lower bid of $59m.

The other companies vying for the contracy were Italy’s Saipem with a $108m bid and Kuwait’s Heisco, which submitted a price of $110m.

KNPC had tendered the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract in late April 2016, setting an initial bid deadline for 19 June.

The EPC phase will be carried out over the next 30 months and comprises the construction of facilities to treat and store liquid sulphur at Al-Ahmadi – Kuwait’s largest refinery with a current capacity of 466,000 barrels a day.