REFINERY RETENDER FOR AL ZOUR DUE BY END OF MAY
Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) is planning to retender the four main process packages on its new refinery project at Al- Zour by the end of May.
According to the Ministry of Oil and Gas, formerly known as the energy ministry, KNPC will retender the project in either April or May.
The tenders will let on a cost-reimbursement basis, with contractors compensated for each item procured and provided with a fixed amount of profit. The new contracting strategy is designed to reduce contractor risk and enable more companies to bid for the work.
KNPC was forced to retender the 615,000-barrel-a-day refinery after lump sum bids for the four main packages came in at more than $15,000 million, two and a half times the original budget.
HIGH ARCTIC WINS OIL CONTRACT
Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) has awarded a five-year $34 million contract to Canada’s High Arctic Energy Services for oil field operations.
Snubbing and hydraulic operations in various KOC fields are expected to begin in the second quarter of this year, with High Arctic saying it will shift existing equipment from its Canadian operations into the region.
KOC also confirmed that South Korea’s SK Engineering and construction has won the $621 million contract to build the gathering center 24.
The work entails the construction of a facility with a capacity of 165,000 barrels a day in the Sabriya field near the Iraqi border.
SHUAIBA NORTH PROJECT TO GO TO DOOSAN AND SIEMENS
The hotly contested battle for the Shuaiba north power and desalination plant is likely to be won by the South Korean / German team of Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction and Siemens after the Ministry of Electricity and Water recommended its bid to the Central Tenders Committee. A formal award is due soon.
The group priced the contract at KD 378 million ($1,303 million) when bids were submitted last year. The offer was 3 percent higher than the only other bid of KD 366 million ($ 1,262 million) submitted by a group led by Japan’s Mitsui and Company. However, when the differing water exports and electricity capacities were compared, the Doosan- led group emerged as he cheapest.
The original tender documents called for the construction of a gas fired combined cycle plant, with capacity of about 500 MW, and 60 million gallons-a-day of multi-stage flash desalination capacity on a lump-sum engineering, procurement and construction basis.
The state is experiencing a major power crisis and needs to bring on stream as much electricity generating capacity as it can over the next 24 months to avoid widespread blackouts.
AMEC IN LINE FOR IN-HOUSE CONTRACT AFTER LOW BID
The UK’s Amec is set to be awarded a major in-house project engineering and management services contract for Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) after submitting the low bid for the work.
Amec’s offer of KD23.3 million ($80.3 million) was lower than the bids of KD 25.5 million ($88 million) and KD 26.3 million ($90.7 million) submitted respectively by Australia’s Worly Parsons and the US’ Fluor Corporation. Two other companies- the US’ Foster Wheeler and Paris-based Technip- were prequalified to bid for the work, but declined to submit an offer.
The three year contract, with options for a further two years covers the provision of project management and engineering advisory services to KNPC, including front-end engineering and design work, the preparation of tender documents and evaluation of technical bids.
If Amec wins the contract, which is currently held by Fluor, it will be the second local in-house engineering contract for the company.
In 2004, it won a $125 million five-year contract to provide consultancy services to Kuwait Oil Company. The firm already has about 300 engineers in the state, and the new contract will require the addition of at least a further 150 staff.
COMBINED GROUP WINS WATER DEALS
The local Combined Group has signed two contracts, totaling KD33.6 million ($116 million),To improve the state’s water infrastructure.
The larger of the two contracts, worth KD17.9 million ($61.7 million), covers the installation and maintenance of a 59-kilometre-long, 1.2-metre-diameter water pipeline from Mutlaa al-Aali to the West Funaitees water distribution complex. The contractor was low bidder in December
The second contract, worth KD15.7 million ($54 million), involves the creation of a waste water reservoir at the Umm al-Rehmam dry lake close to the Iraqi border. The project calls for the installation of an 82-kilometre pipeline, and the construction of pumping stations and the upgrade of the data monitoring centre.
SHUAIBA RECEIVES FINAL BIDS
Final clarifications have been submitted to the Ministry of Energy (Electricity & Water) for the contract to build the Shuiba north power and desalination plant.
Two groups led by Japan’s Mitsui & Company and South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction are competing for the engineering, procurement and construction contract after submitting bids in November.
The Mitsui group is low bidder at KD 366 million ($1262 million) but has proposed a lower power and water export capacity than the Doosan group, which submitted a price of KD 378 million ($1.303 million). The client is due to award the contract by the end of April.
PROJECTS AGENCY PRESSES AHEAD WITH BUBIYAN ISLAND
The Mega Projects Agency, part of the Ministry of Public Works, is understood to have provisionally prequalified five of the six companies that applied for the third-phase port works on the multi-billion –dollar Bubiyan island development.
The prequalifiers are: Egypt’s Arab Contractors (Osman Ahmed Osman & Company);Geneva –registered Archirodon Construction (Overseas) with the lacal Mushrif Trading & Contracting Company; China Harbour Engineering Company with Mohamed Abdulmohsin Kharafi & Sons and Gulf Dredging & Contracting, both local; South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction with the local united Gulf Construction Company, and Turkey’s STFA with the local Combined Group.
The design and build contract covers the construction of a container terminal, four berths and a 1,300 meter long quay wall in addition to port buildings and utilities, digging and soil improvement works and site leveling. The ports’s total handling capacity will be 2.5 million containers a year when it opens in 2010. The tender is due to be issued later in the year.
Contract negotiations are still ongoing for the first-phase work, covering the port’s access road and bridge. A tender is scheduled to be issued soon for the second phase dredging contract.
HALLIBURTON WINS WORK
The US Halliburton has won a KD 116.6 million($40 million) contract for the provision of coiled tubing and associated services. Under the five year contract, the contractor will provide tubing, common, nitrogen and pumping and stimulation services to Kuwait Oil Company(KOC).
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