Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) says it is going ahead with its long-delayed plan to build the Middle East's largest oil refinery despite political tensions that have stalled many economic development plans.

The government expects to announce next month the winner of the Al Zour refinery's project management and consultancy (PMC) contract, a senior executive at KNPC said.

"The bids have been submitted and now we are in the evaluation phase...I expect the result to be out in August," the executive said.

Five international engineering firms submitted bids for the PMC contract, industry sources said: US-based Foster Wheeler and Fluor Corporation, Australia's WorleyParsons, France's Technip and British-based Amec.

Other contractors are due to prequalify by August 7 in order to bid for the project's engineering, procurement and construction contracts, industry sources said. If it goes ahead, the Al Zour project could have an impact well beyond its monetary value, helping to restore confidence in Kuwait's economic management and the government's ability to get things done.

Originally planned a decade ago, the project, which aims to provide fuel for power generation and water desalination facilities and export any excess, is estimated to cost around $ 14.5 billion. The refinery would process 615,000 barrels per day, coming online in 2018; it would exceed the capacity of the Middle East's largest refinery, Saudi Arabia's 550,000 bpd Ras Tanura plant.

But Al Zour and many other plans have been held up by years of dispute between the cabinet and parliament over allegations of corruption and mismanagement.

The Al Zour refinery project was originally awarded in 2008 to companies including South Korea's GS Engineering & Construction and Japan's JGC. But in 2009 the cabinet decided to halt the project on the grounds that oil prices were then too low to finance oil projects.