Abu Dhabi Polymers Company (Borouge) has awarded $2.6bn of construction contracts on the third-phase expansion of its Ruwais plastics complex, sources close to the scheme tell MEED.

Earlier in May, MEED reported that a consortium of South Korea’s Samsung Engineering and Italy’s Tecnimont were the favourites to win the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts to build a $1.45bn polyolefins unit and a $500m low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant while South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction was the frontrunner for the $937m offsites and utilities deal.

Borouge sent out formal letters of award to the three contractors on 26 May, sources close to the firms tell MEED.

“That’s it, they have won it,” says one executive with close ties to Borouge.

The deal is part of the third-phase expansion of Borouge’s Ruwais facilities, Borouge 3. Once the scheme is complete in early 2014 the company will produce 4.5 million tonnes a year (t/y) of plastics at the complex.

In July 2009, the company awarded a $1.07bn deal to Germany’s Linde to build a 1.5 million t/y cracker unit for Borouge 3. The cracker will break down ethane, a component of natural gas, into ethylene. Once completed, the cracker will be one of the biggest of its kind in the world.

Only one contract remains to be tendered, a $100-200m EPC deal covering a new cross linked polyethylene (XLPE) plant, which Borouge is scheduled to tender by the end of May.