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Five South Korean construction companies won large-scale projects in the Middle East totaling 6,287.6 trillion won, or around US$5.4 billion.

The amount is the fifth largest in the history of overseas construction orders.

Daewoo Engineering & Construction (E&C), Hyundai E&C, Hyundai Heavy Industries, SK E&C, and Hanwha E&C announced on July 31 that they had received letters of acceptance (LOA) on four packages with the Al Zour New Refinery Project (NRP) commissioned by the Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) between January and March of this year.

Kuwait’s NRP involves the building of an oil refining plant for the production of 615,000 barrels of low-sulfur fuel per day in the Al Zour region on the south coast. Once complete, it will be the second-largest such plant in the world. Total project expenses are US$13-14 billion, with South Korean construction company orders totaling US$5.37 billion.

The fifth package and first order was claimed by a consortium of Hyundai E&C (US$600 million), SK E&C (US$450 million), and Italy’s Saipem. The second and third packages, which involve the largest scale of construction, were won by a Daewoo E&C consortium with Daewoo E&C (US$1.95 billion), Hyundai Heavy Industries (US$1.95 billion), and the US’s Fluor Corporation. The first package went to the consortium of Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas (TR) with Hanwha E&C (US$424 million) and China’s Sinopec.

The overseas order is the fifth largest in South Korean construction history after a United Arab Emirates nuclear power plant construction project (US$18.6 billion), the Bismayah New City project in Iraq (US$10 billion), the second stage of Libya’s Great Man-Made River (US$6.4 billion), and the Roy Hill iron ore project in Australia (US$5.8 billion).

By Choi Jong-hoon, staff reporter

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