Firms bidding on the estimated $150m contract to build new fuel storage facilities at Hamriyah in Sharjah expect to hear who the low bidder is by the end of September. Contractors say that the low bidder will be awarded the contract.

“The client told us that they would open the priced bids in the first working week after Eid,” said a senior executive at one of the bidding firms on 27 September. “That is this week so we should know within a few days, before the end of the month, who the winner is.”

The successful bidder will build nine individual tanks with 83,000 cubic metres of storage capacity for refined oil and gas products including jet fuel, diesel, gasoline and fuel oil.

The firms are keen to find out who the winner is after significant delays to the tender. Bidders were originally asked to submit prices on the deal on 11 June, but the client on the project, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Fuel Oil Distribution (Adnoc-Fod) asked for new prices in August (MEED 19:6:09).

“They wanted lower prices, so they talked about the terms and then asked for new commercials,” the executive says.

Adnoc will use the facility as a supply hub for its subsidiary’s service stations in Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Quwain and central regions of the UAE.

The prequalifiers for the contract include local Al-Jaber Energy Services, Italy’s Bellei Energy, Lebanon’s Contracting & Trading (CAT), Punj Lloyd, and Indian Oil Tanking, both of India.