Prospective prequalifiers include: US-based Foster Wheeler, with Daelim Industrial Companyand Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company, both of South Korea; Italy's Tecnimont,with SK Engineering & Construction Company, also of South Korea; Italy's Snamprogetti; Paris-based Technip; JGC Corporationof Japan; Chiyoda Corporation, also of Japan; Spain's Tecnicas Reunidas; and LG E&C, also Korean.

Tender documents for the EPC contract, which is already behind schedule, are expected to be issued at the beginning of June. The $900 million scheme calls for the construction of a 650,000-tonne-a-year (t/y) paraxylene and benzene plant and a 300,000-t/y styrene unit. Refinery operator Kuwait National Petroleum Companywill supply the plant with 2.5 million t/y of naphtha for feedstock. Bechtelof the US is the project management consultant (PMC). The complex will be 80 per cent owned by PIC and 20 per cent by local investors (MEED 13:2:04).

Bechtel is one of three US companies bidding for the PMC contract on the Equate II project. The US' Fluor Danielis understood to be low bidder for the PMC contract, followed by Foster Wheeler. The scheme, which is a joint venture between PIC and Dow Chemical Companyof the US, involves the construction of an 850,000-t/y ethane cracker, a 600,000-t/y ethylene glycol/ethylene oxide unit and 400,000 t/y of new polyethylene capacity. The new plant is effectively the same size as the existing olefins complex operated by Equate Petrochemicals Company (MEED 26:3:04).