Borouge, the downstream joint venture of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and Austria’s Borealis, plans to award the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for its polypropylene plant within the next two months, its chief executive has told MEED

Borouge is currently studying the commercial bids received from engineering firms for the polypropylene plant-5 (PP5), Ahmad Omar Abdulla said, adding that the In-Country Value (ICV) aspect will be a major consideration in the bid evaluation process.

“ICV is one of the pillars [for bid evaluation]. Anyone [submitting a bid] who has it has to show us how much is being added to the local economy,” Abdulla said. Borouge is targeting a minimum of 40 per cent ICV content generation aspect in bids, he added.

The firms that have submitted bids for the PP5 project are:

• Wison Engineering (China)
• Maire Tecnimont (Italy)
• Hyundai Engineering (South Korea)
• Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain)
• Samsung Engineering (South Korea)

The PP5 project is estimated to be worth $550m and is to be constructed in Ruwais with a production capacity of 600,000 tonnes per year.

The plant is to be integrated with the existing Borouge 3 complex.

Abudulla also said that Borouge is working on the expansion of its Anteo production plant to “produce on a bigger scale”.

MEED reported earlier this month that Borouge is evaluating the technical bids for EPC works for the project.

“We managed to produce Anteo in 2017, and has been launched officially in October last year. It is our flagship product and creates good image for us,” Abdulla said.

“[Anteo is] a sealable, low-cost product that is easy to market to consumers. [Looks] very appealing on the shelf. This now has given us good indication to concentrate more and more on new products,” he said.