Saudi Aramco has received the bids and ended technical clarification for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the $700m-$1bn Clean Transportation Fuels Project (CTFP) at its Riyadh refinery.

Only four EPC contractors remain in the running for the contract, which should be awarded in early February.

“The tender process is nearing its end and a decision is expected very soon,” says an oil and gas executive working in Saudi Arabia. “There has been no indication that there are any frontrunners at this point, but with only four bidders remaining all must be hopeful of being successful.”

The four remaining bidders are:  

• Daelim Industrial (South Korea)
• JGC Corporation (Japan)
• Saipem (Italy)   
• Samsung Engineering (South Korea)

Contractors were invited to bid for the scheme, which is part of Aramco’s plan to reduce the sulphur content in the gasoline and diesel it produces in August and submitted bids in early January.

The scope of works includes new isomerisation, naphtha-splitting and sulphur guard-bed units, as well as a diesel hydrotreater reactors. Other work includes the debottlenecking of the hydrocracker and gas concentration units, and replacement of crude and vacuum distillation tower internals.

MEED reported in July 2011 that the US’ Foster Wheeler had been awarded the front-end engineering and design (feed) for the project.

Aramco has initiated several similar clean fuels schemes at both its domestic wholly owned and joint-venture refineries, including its facilities at Ras Tanura, Yanbu and Rabigh.

The schemes are part of Aramco’s fuel quality roadmap aims to cut air pollution by supplying ultra-low sulphur diesel for domestic use.

This involves lowering the sulphur content in diesel for transportation to 10 parts a million. This will bring the kingdom’s fuel in line with international standards. Aramco is looking to reduce sulphur in its diesel by 95 per cent by 2016