Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Apr. 14 -- Saudi Arabia will begin entertaining bids for the construction and operation of a new refinery at Jizan, according to the Saudi oil ministry.
Open bids should begin by the end of May, said ministry spokesman Abed Al-Saadoun, who added that the winner could possibly be chosen by yearend.
Al-Saadoun said the refinery will have capacity of as much as 400,000 b/d, which echoed earlier official estimates ranging 250,000-400,000 b/d.
The oil ministry last year said 8 Saudi companies and 43 firms outside the kingdom had been prequalified to take part in the Jizan tender, among them state-owned Saudi Aramco.
Saudi Arabia announced plans to increase its refining capacity to 3.8 million b/d from 2.1 million b/d. The proposed refinery at Jizan is one of four facilities the Saudis plan to build.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].