Contractors have handed in their final bids for a deal to build the main supporting infrastructure on the third-phase expansion of the Abu Dhabi Polymers Company (Borouge) Ruwais plastics complex.

Firms that submitted commercial bids for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) package, named offsites and utilities, in time for the 23 May deadline include:

• Daelim (South Korea)
• Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Petrofac (UK)
• GS Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Petrofac (UK)
• Tecnimont (Italy) / Samsung (South Korea)
•  Technint (Italy) / CTCI Corporation (Taiwan)
• Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain)

The deal is understood to be worth up to $1bn and covers buildings, storage and basic processing facilities, alongside other utilities at the planned petrochemicals plant. This includes seawater cooling systems, chemical and oil product storage space, and the main buildings at the site.

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.

MEED reported on 19 May that the Samsung/Tecnimont consortium, which is also bidding on the offsites and utilities contract, was the favourite to win a $1.45bn contract to build the main polyolefins unit at the complex and the $500m low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant after submitting the lowest price in a 16 May bid round (MEED 19:5:2010).

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.

Sources close to the project expect Borouge to open the bids on 23 May, and for the contract to be awarded in early June. Two of the bidders, including the Tecnimont/Samsung consortium are understood to have submitted combined bids for the polyolefins, LDPE and offsites and utilities deal, and this could mean all three are awarded to a single party, says a source with close ties to Borouge.