The Central Agency for Public Tenders has rejected a request from the Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC) to new alliances to submit bids for the planned $10 billion Al-Zour Petrochemical Complex project.
The MED magazine stated KIPIC requested approval of a modified list of contractors qualified for the project after “changing alliances between some contractors,” but CAPT decided otherwise, and did not provide a reason for not its decision, and did not disclose how and why the list differed from the original list, reports Al-Qabas daily.
The magazine indicated in its report that the decision to withhold approval is likely to increase concerns about this project, which suffers from significant delays. Earlier this year, two companies, US-based Fluor Engineering and South Korea’s SK Engineering & Construction, withdrew from the bidding process for the project, although they were expected to participate in the bidding process as part of larger consortia with other contractors at a time when the two companies did not mention the reason for not participating in the tender.
The magazine said that the Central Agency for Public Tenders discussed the KIPIC request at a meeting held on January 23, where it discussed multiple issues related to the Al-Zour facility and did not take a final decision on it, and it will continue to discuss it at its next meeting.
The topics of discussion included a request by Indian engineering firm Larsen & Toubro to pre-qualify the project as the sole bidder, and requests calling for Hyundai E&C of South Korea to replace SK E&C as Petrofac’s bidding partner for packages one and two.
The Central Agency for Public Tenders also discussed a separate complaint regarding the exclusion of Singapore’s Mepcom Offshore & Marine from the bidding process, as a final decision on this complaint was postponed until the next meeting of the group, according to the document.