Several companies are preparing to bid on the construction of an ammonia plant in Salalah, southern Oman, after the project was tendered by Salalah Methanol Company (SMC) earlier this year.

SMC is planning to build a 1,000 tonne-a-day (t/d) plant in the Salalah Free Zone, with storage facilities, export loading facilities and additional utilities.

SMC has asked companies to submit engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) bids at the end of May, according to sources familiar with the project. The deadline has been extended from an earlier date. 

The companies prequalified to bid are:

• CTCI Corporation (Taiwan)
• Daelim Industrial (South Korea)
• GS Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Hanwha Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Larsen & Toubro (India)
• Samsung Engineering (South Korea)
• SNC Lavalin (Canada)
• Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain)

The company will use rich hydrogen purge gas from its adjacent 3,000-t/d methanol plant as feedstock to produce ammonia in the new facility. Ammonia is mainly used to make nitrogen-based fertilisers, cleaning chemicals and for fermentation.

The front-end engineering and design (feed) study for the project was carried out by Germany’s Linde.

SMC is co-owned by state-owned Oman Oil Company (OOC) and Takamul Investment Company. The latter company is 93 per cent owned by OOC.