Korean firms win $5.3b order for Mideast’s largest refinery

South Korean builders said Friday that they won deals worth $5.3 billion to build an oil refinery in Kuwait even as the construction industry is struggling with a sharp drop in orders from the Middle East this year.

The project, worth $14 billion in total, is to build the biggest refinery in the Middle East, which will boost its oil refining output capacity of 615,000 barrels per day in the region of Al Zour, south Kuwait.

Of the five packages split from the main project, four were awarded to consortia led by Seoul-based major firms -- Hyundai E&C, Daewoo E&C, Hyundai Heavy Industries, SK E&C and Hanwha E&C. The Kuwait National Petroleum Company issued tenders in January and March,

“The mega deal allows us to establish a solid foothold in Kuwait as leading builders of infrastructure. We expect to gain the upper hand in ensuing projects in the country as well as other countries in the region,” said an official at Hyundai E&C which confirmed the order in a separate regulatory filing.

A consortium consisting of Daewoo E&C and Hyundai Heavy Industries clinched the second and third sections of the project, which is estimated at a combined $5.76 billion. Daewoo has one-third stake in the package worth $1.92 billion.

The fifth package, worth $1.54 billion, was won by a joint venture of Hyundai E&C, SK E&C and Italy’s Saipem. Hyundai E&C and SK E&C have a combined 70 percent stake in the project, worth $1 billion

According to KNPC, the contract for the fifth package involves the construction of an export terminal and a wharf for small vessels and other marine facilities for the refinery.

A consortium led by Hanwha E&C clinched the first package in which the Korean construction firm has a 10 percent stake worth $424 million.

The construction will take 45 months and operations are expected to begin in late 2018 or early 2019.

The mega deal will help quench the Korean builders’ thirst for overseas orders as their earnings from the Middle East have remained in the doldrums this year.

“Oil-producing countries in the Middle East had been delaying or cutting back on new construction projects due to plunging oil prices, and so there has been a sharp decline in overseas orders,” said an official from the International Contractors Association of Korea.

According to data from the ICAK, the total amount of overseas construction orders Korean firms received from the Middle East dropped 72 percent to $7.1 billion during the first seven months this year from $25.9 billion for the same period in 2014.

Contracts from the region represent less than 30 percent of the total overseas orders won by Korean builders this year, a sharp fall from an average of 70-80 percent in previous years.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)