Bidding on Ruwais plastics expansion to start in February

19 January 2010

Third phase of development will cost more than $3bn

Abu Dhabi Polymers Company (Borouge) has set February deadlines for the first round of bidding on three of the main construction contracts on the company’s third-phase expansion of its Ruwais plastics complex, wroth more than $3bn.

The company is tendering three construction packages covering a polyolefins plant producing the polyethylene and polypropylene; a low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant; and the offsites and utilities to provide supporting infrastructure for the scheme.

Technical bids outlining engineering proposals for the polyolefins plant are due on 14 February. These will be followed by the technical bids for the offsites and utilities deal on 18 February and those for the LDPE plant on 24 February.

Borouge had originally set January dates for the LDPE and polyolefins deals, but delayed them after the bidders asked for more time, according to contractors considering bidding for the contracts.

Firms competing on the polyolefins plant include South Korea’s GS Engineering & Construction; Daelim Corporation, also of South Korea, with the UK’s Petrofac; a third South Korean firm, Samsung, with Italy’s Tecnimont; Taiwan’s CTCI; and Germany’s Uhde.

Among the firms bidding on the LDPE construction scheme are GS, the UK’s Simon Carves, Tecnimont, Uhde, and Italy’s Saipem.

Prequalified firms competing for the offsites and utilities deal include the Daelim/Petrofac consortium; GS; South Korea’s SK Engineering & Construction; the Tecnimont/Samsung consortium; South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries; CTCI with Italy’s Techint; Spain’s TR; and Paris-based Technip.

Borouge will ask for final commercial bids, detailing cost structures for each proposal, in April, according to contractors.

The third-phase expansion of the complex, the Borouge 3 project, will boost the firm’s plastics production at Ruwais by 2.5 million tonnes a year (t/y) to 4.5 million t/y, making it the largest complex of its kind in the world.

Germany’s Linde won a $1.1bn contract to build the 1.5-million-t/y ethane cracker for the Borouge 3 scheme in July 2009 (MEED 6:7:09).

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