South Korea’s Daewoo Engineering & Construction is the favourite to win an estimated $100m oil storage tank deal being tendered by Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company (Takreer) as part of a wider project to link the emirate’s refineries, sources close to the project tell MEED.

Five international engineering firms submitted technical bids for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract on 14 February and commercial bids in early March, executives close to the companies say. It covers the construction of new storage tanks at Takreer’s storage depot at Mussafah and is valued at up to $100m.

Daewoo submitted the lowest bid, followed by fellow South Korean firm Samsung Engineering, a source close to Takreer says. A formal award is expected in either the last week of April or the first week of May.

The contract is part of a second-phase scheme to link the country’s refineries known as the inter-refinery pipeline project (IRP) 2.

Takreer released formal invitations to bid for the main EPC contract on the scheme, which covers the construction of more than 900 kilometres of pipelines, ranging from 10 to 28 inches in size, on 11 March. The state refiner has set a 17 May deadline for commercial bids and a tentative 22 June cut-off for price proposals on the scheme.

Firms prequalified to bid on the contract include:

• Techint (Italy)
• Saipem (Italy)
• Samsung Engineering
• Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) (Athens-based)
• Dodsal (India)
• Technip (Paris)

It is one of the biggest pipeline deals to be tendered in the emirate in recent years. The main part of the contract covers a 230km pipeline linking the Abu Dhabi refinery with Takreer’s Ruwais refinery.

Other pipelines will link the Ruwais refinery, the Abu Dhabi refinery, the Al-Ain storage depot, the Mussafah distribution depot and Abu Dhabi International airport. The contract also covers the construction of around 24 oil storage tanks across the emirate.

France’s Technip is due to complete a front end engineering and design (Feed) study for the scheme in May.