South Korea’s Samsung C&T has submitted to the lowest bid for an estimated $56m deal to build a new tail gas treatment unit at the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery in Kuwait.

The firm’s price of KD15.7m ($56.4m) beat proposals from nine other international engineering firms who submitted bids to state-refiner, Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) on 3 April.

Italy’s Tecnimont submitted the second lowest price at KD17.7m ($63.6m), followed by Larsen & Toubro of India with KD17.8m ($63.9m).

Some 26 firms were prequalified for the deal when it was launched in December 2011, but interest was muted due to the relatively small size of the scheme. The winning firm will build a new acid gas exhaust treatment unit at the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery, 50 kilometres from Kuwait City by the end of 2015.

Apart from its plans for a new grassroot refinery at Al-Zour and the Clean Fuels Project, most large engineering firms are waiting for announcements on the tender of KNPC’s fifth gas fractionation train. The scheme is expected to be tendered in the middle of 2012, with a revised budget of close to $1.4bn. A planned sulphur handling and export project could also be launched in May, worth approximately $700m.