A consortium of Netherlands-based CB&I, Italy’s Saipem and Taiwanese group CTCI has emerged as the frontrunner to win the largest package on Oman’s Liwa Plastics project, according to sources familiar with the scheme.

The steam cracker package is the largest of four engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) packages tendered by Oman Oil Refineries & Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic) on the planned $5.2bn petrochemicals project in Sohar, northern Oman.

Orpic prequalified three consortia to bid on the steam cracker package:

• CB&I (US) / Saipem (Italy) / CTCI (Taiwan)
• Daelim Industrial (South Korea) / Petrofac (UK) / Hanwha E&C (South Korea)
• Toyo Engineering (Japan) / GS E&C (South Korea)

The consortium led by CB&I is thought to have submitted the lowest bid for the package. CB&I had previously been awarded the scheme’s front-end engineering and design (feed) contract, which includes the cracker technology licence.

Orpic is in negotiations with the preferred bidders for all four EPC packages and is planning to award the contracts in December, Hilal Abdullah Mohd al-Hinai, general manager, corporate support services at Orpic, told delegates at MEED’s Oman Projects Forum on 28 October.

On 20 October, Orpic revealed the preferred bidders for the other three packages as: Italy’s Tecnimont; a joint venture of South Korea’s GS Engineering & Construction (GS E&C) and Japan-based Mitsui & Company; and Indian group Punj Lloyd.

MEED understands Tecnimont has been selected to build three plastics plants at Orpic’s main site in Sohar, northern Oman. GS E&C/Mitsui has been selected to build a natural gas extraction unit in Fahud, and Punj Lloyd is the preferred bidder to install a natural gas liquids (NGLs) pipeline between Fahud and Sohar.

Liwa Plastics will be the largest petrochemicals operation in Oman, and is one the largest single projects ever undertaken in the sultanate.

The cracker will use a combination of feedstocks including NGLs extracted from natural gas, liquid petroleum gas (LPG) from the Sohar refinery and aromatics plant, dry gas from the Sohar refinery, and condensates from Oman LNG.

The complex will have the capacity to produce 880,000 tonnes a year (t/y) of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE); 300,000 t/y of PP; 90,000 t/y of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE); 41,000 t/y of butane; and 111,000 t/y of pyrolysis gasoline.