Bidders lining up to build Saudi Arabia's Jazan oil refinery have been issued with a fresh construction deadline of 2015 - a two-year delay to the original schedule, said a report.

The Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ministry released an incentives package to bidders in September, along with Riyadh's request for proposals and the revised completion date, MEED reported, without citing a source.

It remained unclear why the facility will take more than six years to build, and contractors say it could be built in four years if required, as stated in the ministry's original timetable, according to the magazine.

Bids are expected to be filed by March 2009, with an award scheduled for the second quarter of that year, it added.

Spiralling costs have cast doubt over the viability of new oil refineries worldwide, and industry observers have been sceptical over the Jazan plan since it is a long distance from crude production facilities.

The government unveiled plans to build the refinery in 2006 and said it would be 100 per cent privately owned, with an initial public offering to take place once the refinery was deemed viable.-Reuters