Abu Dhabi Chemicals Integration Company (Tacaamol) has extended the deadline for companies to bid for the offsites and utilities (O&U) package of its petrochemicals complex in Ruwais, according to sources familiar with the project.

Contractors have been given a 2 March deadline to submit technical engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) proposals for the package. The deal was originally tendered with a deadline of late November 2014, but this has been pushed back.

Tacaamol has yet to set a deadline for commercial EPC bids on the O&U package or the larger aromatics complex package. The company received technical bids for the aromatics complex on 15 October last year.

South Korea’s GS Engineering & Construction and Samsung Engineering, and France’s Technip are thought to be among the companies bidding for the aromatics complex.

Tacaamol is a 51:49 per cent joint venture of state-owned Abu Dhabi National Chemicals Company (Chemaweyaat) and Singapore-based chemicals group Indorama, and was formed in December 2013.

The complex will have the capacity to produce 1.4 million tonnes a year (t/y) of paraxylene and 500,000 t/y of benzene when it is completed towards the end of the decade.

The project will be located at the Madeenat Chemaweyaat al-Gharbia (MCAG) site, east of the existing Ruwais refining and petrochemicals facilities, along with supporting infrastructure including a dedicated export tank farm, jetty and loading berths.

The long-delayed scheme first looked to be back on track in 2012, when Chemaweyaat appointed US-based Foster Wheeler as the project management consultant for the front-end engineering and design (feed) phase.

In September 2013, MEED revealed that the feed work for the project had been awarded to US engineering group CH2M Hill.

Chemaweyaat is a joint venture of Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic), Abu Dhabi Investment Council and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc).

Follow Mark Watts on Twitter: @MEEDMark