They are Paris-based Technip, US-based Foster Wheeler, Italy's Snamprogetti, France's Sofresid, Sharjah-based Petrofac International, JGC Corporation and Chiyoda Corporation, both of Japan,and Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company, Daelim Industrial Company, LG E&C and SK Engineering & Construction- all of South Korea.

The plant will be designed to handle 1,140 million cubic feet a day of gas and will extract ethane from the lean gas of the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) unit at Mina al-Ahmadi. The US' Fluor Danielhas carried out the front-end engineering and design (FEED) package for the estimated KD 110 million ($365 million) project.

The client is refinery operator Kuwait National Petroleum Company. The ERU project will supply additional feedstock for new ethylene and ethylene derivative capacity planned at Shuaiba (MEED 26:9:03; 8:5:03).