Saudi Arabia's plans for three new refinery projects have been hit by delays, the Middle East Economic Survey reports in its Sep. 22 issue.

The projects affected are Saudi Arabian Oil Co.'s integrated refinery and petrochemical complexes at Ras Tanura and Rabigh, and the oil ministry's greenfield Jizan refinery scheme, MEES reports, citing industry sources.

Aramco's estimated $25 billion Ras Tanura complex developed with Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) has been delayed as the workload for front-end engineering design, or FEED, contractor KBR Inc. has proven to be too high for a single firm, MEES reports.

Some of KBR's original workload will be given to another company, according to MEES.

Start-up of Petro Rabigh, the Aramco joint venture with Sumitomo Chemical Co. (4005.TO), has been delayed to the first quarter 2009, MEES says.

Bids for the Jizan refinery project have been pushed back to March 7 next year after initially expected in March this year as the ministry is preparing to put together an incentives package for bidders and to process government permissions, MEES reports.

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