Saudi Aramco is expected shortly to award an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the Clean Transportation Fuel Project at its 120,000 b/d capacity Riyadh refinery to South Korea’s Samsung Engineering. The contractor has not received official notice of the award, but the Saudi state firm typically negotiates final details with the chosen bidder before concluding the EPC deal. This happened when Samsung was awarded the Luberef expansion project (MEES, 19 October 2012).
Bidding for the Riyadh refinery upgrade has taken longer than envisaged. The original October deadline for bids was extended to January at the request of bidders. This suggests that the start-up target for the new units may be revised when the formal contract award is announced. The cost of the project is expected to be $300mn. The upgrade will enable Saudi Aramco to reduce the sulfur content of gasoline and diesel produced in the plant to 10 parts per million, in line with tightening Saudi fuels regulations. (CONTINUED - 604 WORDS)
