AL-ZOUR BID EVALUATION CONTINUES
Kuwait National Petroleum Company(KNPC) has invited the bidders for its planned new refinery project at Al-Zour to attend clarification meetings in London in an effort o resolve budget difficulties.
The move comes as KNPC officials debate whether to proceed with the scheme in its existing format or reopen the tendering process.
Bids for the four main packages to build the 615,000-barrel-a-day refinery came in more than two-and-a-half times KNPC’s original budget when they were submitted in December. The client now wants to determine if the prices reflect current market rates or if they have been unduly inflated.
Sources close to the project say that it is unlikely to proceed if the bids are shown to be too high. Instead, KNPC is likely to retender the scheme using a different contracting strategy. Kuwait urgently requires cleaner fuel for its power generation requirements, and scrapping the project entirely is not an option under construction.
South Korea firms dominated the bidding for the refinery, with GS Engineering & Contracting, SK Engineering & Construction, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hyundai Engineering & Construction and Daelim Industrial Company the low bidders for the contract. Between them the four low bids total more than $15,000 million. US, European and Japanese contractors withdrew from the process, although some are expected to participate should the project be retendered and the contracts’ terms and conditions revised to make them more contractor-friendly.
DAELIM BIDS LOW FOR PIPELINE WORK
South Korea’s Daelim Industrial Company is low bidder at KD 74 million ($255 million) for the contract to supply and replace nine oil pipelines between its north and south tank farms. The client, Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), will take about three months evaluating ids before making an award.
The scope of works on the lump-sum EPC contract calls for the demolition of the existing sour crude pipelines and replacing them with new polyethylene-lined steel pipes of varying diameters up to 48 inches.
The project includes pipelines from the north and south tank farms and the Ahmadi distribution manifold to the central mixing manifold.
SULAIBIYA TO BE EXTENDED
The Ministry of Public Works has asked the US/local Utilities Development Company(UDC) to expand the Sulaibiya waste water treatment and desalination plant to 500,000 cubic meters a day (cm/d), up from its current capacity of 375,000 cm/d.
HALLIBURTON IN SUPPLY DEAL
The US Halliburton has been awarded a KD 15 million(51.7 million) contract to provide well completion equipment and services for Kuwait Oil Company. The five year contract covers the provision of equipment including alternative, gravel pack and sump packers, straddle and pack off equipment; sub surface flow control systems and safety equipment; redress kits and hydrostatic set packers.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCHEME SETS OFF
Kuwait has launched a multi-million-dollar programme to rehabilitate the environmental damage caused by the 1990-91 Iraqi invasion and subsequent occupation. It will be funded by he UN Compensation Commission (UNCC), which has collected reparations from Baghdad over the past decade.
Called Kuwait National Focal Point(NFP), the programme will repair some of the massive environmental damage caused by the war , which included the release of more than 12 million barrels of oil into the sea, more than 800 oil well fires and the destruction of wildlife habitats. The worst damage was cleaned up in the immediate aftermath of the war, but it is only now with the release of funds, that a full scale programme is getting underway.
The NFP, under the supervision of the Public Authority for Assessment of Compensation for Damages Resulting from Iraqi Aggression, will be responsible for implementing he 10-year-plus programme.
It will involve groundwater and terrestrial schemes, remediation of contaminated soils and open pits, rehabilitation of eco-systems, marine and coastal projects and public health initiatives.
Prequalification applications were received on 27 December for the five-year project planning and supervision consultancy contract. Tenders for the first field contracts should be issued by the end of the year.
HYUNDAI TAKES SUBSTATION
South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company has been awarded the KD 19.4 million($67 million) contract to build the 300/132-kV Green Zone W Substation. Hyundai was low bidder for the contract when bids were submitted last summer. The client is the Ministry of Energy (Electricity & Water).
LOCALS BID LOW FOR PIPELINE
The local Combined Group is low bidder at KD17.9 million($62 million) for the C4 third –phase package on the Subiya water storage and distribution scheme. Kuwait Arab Contractors has submitted the second best offer of KD 18.3 million($63 million) , followed by the local Canar Trading & Contracting at KD 18.5 million($64 million). The contract covers the installation and maintenance of a 59-kilometer-long,1.2-meter-diameter water pipeline from Mutlaa al-Aali to the West Funaitees water distribution complex. The client is the Ministry of Energy (Electricity &Water).
DESALINATION PLANT RETENDERED
The ministry of Energy(Electricity &Water) is retendring the contract to build the Shuwaikh desalination plant, inviting prequalified contractors to submit bids by 11 March.
The Original contract was cancelled after only one company, South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, priced the work. Local tender rules say that at least two bids must be received for major projects to proceed.
The $200 million-300 million lump-sum engineering, procurement and construction contract covers the construction of a 30-million-gallon-a-day-sea water desalination plant close to Shuwaikh port. It will be the first time reverse osmosis technology will be used in Kuwait.
The 12 companies invited for the original contract are prequalified for the retender.
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