The local/European Abu Dhabi Polymers Company (Borouge) has extended the deadline for commercial submissions for its planned specialist plastics plant in Ruwais by another month to 17 January.

Prices for the estimated $200m engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract were due on 23 December, but the deadline has now been pushed back for the second time, according to sources close to the project.

Four firms submitted technical bids to Borouge on 14 November: The US’ Fluor, South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction, UK-based Petrofac with US-based Jacobs, and Linde of Germany (MEED 10:12:10)

The winning contractor 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. With total output of plastics rising to about 4.5 million tonnes a year (t/y) from about 2 million t/y, the expansion will make the plant one of the largest basic plastics facilities in the world.

Due to its flexibility, XLPE is used predominantly in piping for heating systems, domestic water piping and insulation for high-voltage electrical cables.

A consortium of Italy’s Tecnimont and South Korea’s Samsung Engineering was awarded a $1.25bn deal for two contracts to expand polyolefins and low-density polyethylene production in May. The two firms were also prequalified for the XLPE deal, but declined to participate.