Abu Dhabi Gas Industries (Gasco) is holding technical clarification meetings with bidders between 9 and 21 January for its planned sulphur production and distribution facilities at Shah in the south of the emirate.

Nine international engineering and construction firms submitted technical proposals on 5 December:

• Techint (Italy) in consortium with Al-Jaber Group (local)
• Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Saipem (Italy)
• Punj Lloyd (India)
• GS Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Consolidated Contractors Company (Athens-based)
• Dealim (South Korea)
• Samsung (South Korea)
• Tecnimont (Italy)

The deadline for commercial submissions has not been set by Gasco. Proposals are expected by the end of February.

“It will take until the end of January to wrap up changes after the technical meetings. We might see an award in mid-April,” says a source close to the project.

Gasco has already awarded two contracts worth more than $1.1bn to Techint and India’s Dodsal to build sulphur forming and handling facilities at the Ruwais port and Habshan gas field. The deals are part of Abu Dhabi’s plan to raise sulphur production to 7 million tonnes a year (t/y) by 2015 from 1.7 million t/y in 2008 (MEED 29:12:10).

Liquid sulphur produced as a by-product from gas production at the Shah and Habshan gas fields will be transported via pipelines to granulation plants at both sites and loaded into railcars before being sent to the sulphur terminal at Ruwais for export.