Arabian Petrochemical Company (Petrokemya) has received bids for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts on its acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plant project at Jubail in Saudi Arabia.

The bids for the project are now under evaluation and a decision is expected in March.

The contractors bidding for the project are:

• CTCI Corporation (Taiwan)
• Daelim Industrial (South Korea)
• GS Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain)

The UK’s Shaw Group has completed the front-end engineering and design for the $300m plant, which will be the first of its kind in the Middle East when completed.

“Compared to some of the other projects being tendered at the moment, this is relatively small at $300m,” says a contracting source based in Saudi Arabia. “The work is interesting though and the products fit in well with the kingdom’s diversification plans.”

The scope of works for the plant will see construction of a polybutediene plant, latex unit, higher rubber graft facility, styrene acrylonitrile plant and an ABS compounding unit. The overall capacity will be 200,000 tonnes a year (t/y).

The offtake will be sold on the local and international markets. Global production of ABS is currently about 7 million t/y and it used to make car components.

Petrokemya is a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic).