Four international engineering and construction firms are waiting for a decision on an estimated $200m deal to build a specialist plastics plant for the local/European Abu Dhabi Polymers Company (Borouge) after submitting commercial bids on 17 January.

Borouge, a joint venture of of state-upstream operator, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and Vienna-based plastics maker Borealis is expected to make an award by the end of February, contractors say.

Bid submissions had been pushed back twice from their original deadline on 23 December after technical bids were accepted on 14 November last year by the US’ Fluor, South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction, UK-based Petrofac with US-based Jacobs, and Linde of Germany.

The winning firm will build a cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) plant as part of Borouge’s third-phase of expansion at its Ruwais petrochemicals complex in Abu Dhabi. Due to its flexibility, XLPE is used predominantly in piping for heating systems, domestic water piping and insulation for high-voltage electrical cables.

The expansion, which is already under way, will increase total polyolefins production capacity by 2.5 million tonnes a year (t/y) to 4.5 million t/y by 2014, making the plant one of the largest basic plastics facilities in the world.

On 18 January, Borouge awarded a $111m deal to Germany’s Alpine Bau for the construction of non-process buildings (MEED 18:1:11).