Saudi Aramco and US firm ConocoPhillips have set a February 28 deadline for bids for a solids unit at their joint 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) Yanbu refinery, industry sources said on Thursday.

The refinery is part of top oil exporter Saudi Arabia's plans to double total domestic and international refining capacity by 2015.

There are 11 engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) packages for the Yanbu refinery. Aramco and Conoco told contractors they would have to submit their proposals by January 31, 2010 for five other EPC packages that include a coking unit, a crude facility, a gasoline unit, a hydrocracker and a tank farm.

The companies aim to award all contracts in May 2010. They aim to complete building the refinery by March 1, 2014.
Aramco and Conoco awarded in August US firm KBR, an engineering and procurement contract for utilities and interconnecting systems and pipe racks at the refinery.

KBR has also completed the front-end engineering and design of the refinery. – Reuters