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Kuwait City: Kuwait has delayed tenders for contracts to upgrade refineries and build a power plant, energy officials said on Thursday.
The refinery tenders for a $15 billion overhaul of Kuwait's Mina Abdullah and Mina Al Ahmadi plants would be issued in the fourth quarter, said Mohammad Al Ajmi, KNPC spokesman.
Kuwait had previously planned to launch the tender in August.
He gave no reason for the delay. Oil minister Mohammad Al Olaim has come under scrutiny in parliament over the award of contracts to build a giant new refinery in the Gulf Arab state.
But a parliamentary committee in July gave the government the nod for the project after investigating claims that lower bids were ignored when the contracts were awarded.
Prequalified companies could be shortlisted for the next round of refinery upgrade contracts in October, Ajmi said.
Approval for the project's budget from the Supreme Petroleum Council is expected by November, he added.
Local daily Al Rai reported on Thursday the upgrades could cost as much as $22 billion, citing oil sources.
KNPC Chairman Farouk Al Zanki told reporters in July the projects might be worth four billion dinars ($14.96 billion).
KNPC plans to boost the combined capacity of the two refineries to 800,000 bpd from 600,000 bpd by adding more units to Mina Abdullah, and revamping Mina Abdullah.
The Gulf Arab state has also extended the closing date for submitting bids in a tender to build turbines for a 700 million dinar power plant with a capacity of 2,000 megawatts, said Khalid Al Wasmi, assistant undersecretary at the Ministry of Electricity and Water.
"The closing date was postponed till October 7, based on the request of the [bidding] firms," Wasmi told Reuters.
He said winners of the tender are expected to be announced by the end of November, adding the power plant is still expected to start operation in 2011 as previously scheduled.
The pre-qualified companies biding for the plant in the north of the country at Subbiya are General Electric, Japan's Mitsui and Marubeni Corporation, Siemens, Spain's Iberdrola Ingenieria Y Construccion, and Canada's SNC-Lavalin.
Kuwait plans to launch tenders for power expansion worth more than $2.5 billion to meet rising power demand fuelled by economic and population growth. The country aims to boost its power capacity to around 16,000 MW by 2012.
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