Bids in for $450m expansion at Sabic's Jubail storage facilities

02 July 2012

Six contractors submit completed tenders for Sabic Terminal Services Company in Saudi Arabia

The local Sabic Terminal Services Company (Sabtank) has received bids for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract at its $450m expansion at the Jubail Industrial Port in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.

Six bidders submitted their completed tenders on 1 July and a decision is expected in the late third quarter or early fourth quarter of 2012.

The contractors who have submitted bids include:

  • CB&I (US)
  • China National Chemical Corporation (China)
  • Hanwha Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
  • Petrol Steel (Local/Singapore)
  • Sinopec (China)
  • Wison (China)

Bidding is expected to be competitive, but industry sources are citing recent sharp increases in the local steel price as a major considering factor for such a large tank project. The project is being executed on a lump-sum turnkey basis.

“With Chinese and [South] Korean contractors, you always expect bidding to be competitive,” says a contracting source based in Saudi Arabia. “This applies for the vast majority of contracts being tendered in the oil and gas industry.”

The main scope of the expansion is the construction of 37 storage tanks with a total capacity of 330,000 cubic metres. A handling unit will also need to be constructed, as well as berth facilities, substation, firefighting facilities and truck loading and unloading facilities. The tanks will be mainly used to store petrochemical products produced at the Jubail Industrial City before export.

MEED reported in October 2011 that local petrochemicals companies, such as National Industrialisation Company (Tasnee), Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) and the Sahara Petrochemicals Company, were interested in acquiring a stake in the new expanded facilities.

Vopak is the operator of the Sabtank facilities at Jubail and hold a 10 per cent stake, with Sabic holding the remaining 90 per cent. The existing facilities include almost 1.3 million cubic metres of capacity, which can be held in 77 tanks. 

Another major tank farm contract likely to be tendered in Jubail during 2012 will be the port facilities attached to the Sadara Chemical Company’s $20bn petrochemical complex.

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