Saudi state oil giant Aramco and US ConocoPhillips plan to award contracts to build a joint venture refinery in Saudi Arabia in May 2010, sources at contractors said.

Aramco and Conoco invited contractors to bid for the construction of the 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) Yanbu refinery last month and set January 31 as a deadline to submit proposals.

The bidding was delayed several months as the firms looked to save money on contracting costs and raw materials, but no further delays were expected, contractors said.

"They told us there's no further extension, they don't want any extension (for the bidding deadline)" one contractor said after attending a two-day meeting on the project with Aramco officials in Bahrain.

There are 11 engineering, procurement and construction packages. Aramco and Conoco invited contractors bidding for 5 packages to the meeting. The four refinery process packages include a coking unit, a crude facility, a gasoline unit and a hydrocracker.

The other packages are for a tank farm, pipelines, solid handling, utilities, high voltage electricity, an interconnecting system and a natural gas liquids terminal modification.

Mechanical completion of the plant was scheduled for the first half of 2014, and start up soon after, contractors said.

"In the summer of 2014 the plant will be ready, that means between June to September," he said. Aramco and France's Total awarded last month contracts to build an export-oriented refinery of the same size in Saudi Arabia on the Gulf coast at Jubail.-Reuters