Saudi Arabia extends Jizan refinery tender deadline
Monday, 26 Oct 2009
Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia has extended a deadline for bids to build a crude oil refinery with capacity of up to 400,000 barrels per day to November 7th 2009.
A Saudi industry source said that the tender for the Jizan plant has been delayed several times. The initial plan envisaged bidding in 2007. Some of them asked for more time November 7th 2009 is the due date to submit the bids. The source added that the extension would not affect the ministry's plans to award the contract as scheduled.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said earlier 2009 that it planned to award a contract for building the refinery by the end of November based on a bidding process set for September 2nd 2009. The Jizan refinery is far from oil fields and is part of a wider plan to develop the impoverished southern region near the border with Yemen. The refinery will have a capacity to process between 250,000 to 400,000 barrels per day of crude oil. It would be the first Saudi oil refinery to be 100% privately owned.
The world's top oil exporter has ambitious plans to overhaul and expand its refining operations at home and abroad. It envisages domestic refining capacity rising by more than 1.7 million barrels per day by 2015 from the current level of 2.1 million barrels per day.
The oil ministry said recently that 43 foreign firms and 8 Saudi companies including state oil conglomerate Saudi Aramco had been pre qualified for the tender.
