New Refinery Project
Eight Korean builders – Hanwha E&C, Daewoo E&C, Samsung Engineering, Hyundai E&C, Hyundai Engineering, Daelim Industrial, GS E&C, and Hyundai Heavy Industries – are participating in the bidding for the New Refinery Project (NRP) in Kuwait.
The purpose of the project is to build low-sulfur fuel oil production facilities with a daily capacity of 615,000 barrels in Al Zour at a cost of at least US$14 billion. The order is divided into five packages, and three of them are EPC orders.
Package One, the largest of the five, is for building distillation, desulfurization, and hydro-treatment facilities. Hanwha E&C submitted the lowest price, estimated at US$4.8 billion, with its Spanish consortium partner Tecnicas Reunidas. They were followed by a consortium of Samsung Engineering and Petrofac by a margin of US$70 to $80 million.
A consortium of Daewoo E&C, Hyundai Heavy Industries, and Fluor proposed the lowest price, approximately US$3 billion, for the second package to build hydrogen and sulfur recovery facilities. The same consortium is expected to win Package Three for power supply and additional facilities construction as well.
These days, Kuwait is trying to increase its crude oil production by revamping its plant facilities at an investment of over US$70 billion. It has recently started the Clean Fuel Project to this end.