KUWAIT, March 24: Kuwait National Petroleum Co.(KNPC) is considering different options for reintroducing the tender for a planned 615,000 barrels per day al-Zour refinery and will decide in May, Kuwait's state news agency KUNA said.

The options under consideration include reintroducing the tender on a cost-plus basis that would include a profit margin, KUNA quoted KNPC's Chairman Sami al-Rushaid as saying on Friday. It will decide in May after approval from the board of directors, the Kuwaiti energy ministry Web site said.

Increasing costs are hitting energy projects throughout the region as the oil and gas industry strains to bring new capacity online.

Kuwait deemed the first round of bids by international companies too costly. In February, KUNA quoted a KNPC official stating that some of the bids in the previous tender were more than double its cost estimates.

Last month, Qatar Petroleum and Exxon Mobil Corp blamed cost inflation when they dropped plans to build a multi-billion dollar plant that converts gas to fuel.

Officials from KNPC have previously said the new refinery, and upgrade work on the country's two other refineries, would increase Kuwait's total downstream capacity to 1.2m bpd. ---Reuters