Saudi Electricity Company has postponed the bid deadline for the planned Rabigh 6 power plant project to mid-December. The move has disappointed some firms which had planned to bid, but requested a delay to mid-January.

Saudi Electricity granted requests from three contractors to move the deadline from 31 October to 15 December.

Now, according to sources close to the project, four contractors are competing to build the steam power plant at Rabigh, 150 kilometres north of Jeddah.

They are France’s Alstom, the local Arabian Bemco Contracting Company, and South Korean firms Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction and Hyundai Heavy Industries.

Saudi Electricity had previously extended the bid deadline from 13 July to the end of October following requests for more time from contractors.

The Rabigh 6 plant will have capacity of 2,400-2,800MW and will begin operating in the summer of 2013. The plant will run on oil feedstock.

Saudi Electricity had already tendered the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for Rabigh 6 scheme once before. It decided to retender the project after receiving only two bids for the scheme in August 2008. At the time, Hyundai Heavy Industries and a team of Arabian Bemco with South Korea’s Hanwha Engineering & Construction bid for the project.