Saudi Aramco awaits more Yanbu refinery bids in July
RIYADH, June 20 (Reuters) - State oil giant Saudi Aramco will invite contractors to bid in July for seven packages of a 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) joint venture refinery with U.S. ConocoPhillips (COP.N), the Middle East Economic Digest weekly reported.
The two firms halted the bidding process for contracts to build the refinery in November due to uncertainties clouding financial markets and after a drop in input costs.
Citing unnamed sources, MEED said 29 contractors have been invited to bid for six engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) packages and will tender another seven packages worth at least $4 billion in July.
Aramco will meet these contractors in Bahrain on July 14-15, MEED said.
They include a consortium of South Korea's Samsung Engineering Co (028050.KS) and Japan's Chiyoda Corp (6366.T) bidding for a $1.2 billion coker unit, MEED said.
Italian contracting giant Saipem (SPMI.MI) joined China's Sinopec (600028.SS) for both coker and gasoline units. France's Technip (TECF.PA) has also prequalified for three of the largest Yanbu packages: the coker, gasoline and hydrocracker packages, MEED added. (Writing by Reem Shamseddine; editing by Souhail Karam/David Stamp)
