The bidders are: US-based ABB Lummus Global, with Japan's Toyo Engineering Corporation; Stone & Websterof the US, with JGC Corporationof Japan; and Paris-based Technip. The successful bidder will carry out the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) works for a 230,000-tonne-a-year (t/y) ethane cracker, a 715,000-t/y styrene plant and an 850,000-t/y ethyl benzene unit. The company will also provide technology for the ethane cracker.

ABB Lummus has already been chosen by JCP to supply the technology for the styrene and ethyl benzene units. A feedstock agreement with Saudi Aramcois already in place. The US' Parsons Engineering Corporationis working on the front-end engineering and design (FEED) work for the complex.

The project has already secured financial support worth SR 1,230 million ($328 million) from the Public Investment Fund. Further financing is expected to be raised from a Saudi Industrial Development Fund loan.

JCP has the same ownership structure as SCP. Both are joint ventures between the US' Chevron Phillips Chemical Companyand the Saudi Industrial Investment Group, which consists of local investors.