The refining arm of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc Refining) is reportedly modifying the scope of its upcoming $2.5bn gasoline and aromatics project (GAP), according to sources.

Under current plans, the GAP facility will have the capacity to produce 4.2 million tonnes a year (t/y) of gasoline and 1.6 million t/y of aromatics.

The integrated production complex will include light and heavy naphtha hydrotreater units, light naphtha isomerisation units and two heavy naphtha reformer units.

It will also include an aromatics extraction unit, as well as paraxylene and benzene production units.

“Adnoc Refining is in the process of making changes to the project’s overall scope, probably in order to enhance the project’s efficiency,” one source said.

"Owing to lower demand for gasoline, the project's scope can even be adjusted to reduce gasoline output capacity. However, given robust demand for petrochemicals, the aromatics aspect of it is likely to remain as is," a second source said.

The deadline for commercial bid submission for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) works is currently set for 25 December. The previous deadline was 6 November, meaning the date has already been postponed once.

“Adnoc making alterations to the project’s scope means that the date for commercial bid submission [for the EPC] is likely to be pushed back (further),” a third source said.

The technical bids for the EPC works were submitted on 25 October.

The prequalified bidders vying for the main contract are:

• Petrofac (UK)/CTCI (China)
• Daewoo (South Korea)
• Dodsal Group (UAE)
• Intecsa (Spain)
• Sinopec (China)
• Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain)
• Hyundai E&C (South Korea)
• Larsesn & Toubro (India)
• GS Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Maire Tecnimont (Italy)

The UK’s Wood Group is executing the front-end engineering and design (feed) works on the GAP, while US-based Jacobs is providing project management consultancy (PMC) services for the feed aspect of the project.