Up to seven international engineering firms have submitted engineering proposals to Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company (Takreer) in a first round of bidding for the contract to build a $500m lubricants plant for the company at its Ruwais refining complex.

Sources at bidding firms confirm that technical bids for the engineering, procurement and construction deal went in on 29 March. Contractors were originally set a 15 March deadline, but this was pushed back after they asked for more time because of the number of tenders under way in the emirate.

Takreer has set a 3 May deadline for commercial proposals. The cut-off for the second round of bidding was also postponed, from the original 19 April date.

The winning bidder will build a 300,000-barrel a day base oil refinery at Ruwais. Base oils are heavy grades of oil commonly used as industrial lubricants. Takreer currently blends the base oils into fuel oil and then sells this on the open market.

Firms that submitted proposals in the first round of bidding include:

• Samsung Engineering (South Korea)
• Hanwha Corporation (South Korea)
• Technip (France)
• China Technical Consultants (Taiwan)
• Toyo (Japan)
• Uhde (Germany)