South Korea's Hyundai Engineering Company-led consortium has bid the lowest at $1.54 billion (KD454.2 million) for the fifth package of the multi-million-dollar 615,000 barrels per day (bpd) Al Zour oil refinery in Kuwait, according to a report.

The consortium also includes Italy's Saipem and SK Group of South Korea, the Zawya report said, quoting sources in the state-owned Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC), which owns the project.

The contract involves the construction of an export terminal and a wharf for small vessels and other marine facilities for the refinery, it said.

The bid evaluation will take between one month and 45 days, said the report.

Kuwait has already spent around $1.19 billion of the expected cost of nearly $13.7 billion on Al Zour refinery, 8.5 per cent of which has been completed; the project is expected to finish in mid-2017, it said.

The refinery is part of a mega clean fuel project launched by Kuwait to nearly double its oil refining output capacity to 1.4 million bpd. The project also involves the development of two other refineries, it added.