Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) and Japan’s Mitsubishi Rayon Company (MRC) have extended the bid deadline for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for two new petrochemicals plants worth about $500m in Saudi Arabia.

MEED reported in November that initial deadline was set for 12 December, but that has now been extended to mid-February in order to give contractors more time to formulate bids.

“A two-month extension has been granted and this should give all of the bidders enough time to get submit their bids,” says a petrochemicals industry source.

The two plants will produce methyl methacrylate (MMA) and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), and will be built at Jubail in the Eastern Province.

EPC contractors bidding on the scheme include:

• CTCI (Taiwan)
• Daelim Industrial (South Korea)
• Hanwha Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Intecsa Industrial/Dragados Industrial (Spain)
• Technip (France)
• Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain)

Tecnicas Reunidas was awarded the contract for the front-end engineering and design (feed) contract for the project in January 2012. The capacity for the MMA facility will be 250,000 tonnes a year (t/y), which will make it the largest of its type in the world. The smaller PMMA plant will have a capacity of 40,000 t/y.

MMA and PMMA have several downstream uses, including machinery, electrical components and gears. Both facilities fall in line with Sabic’s move to become a key player in the kingdom’s downstream industries.

Sabic and Lucite International, a subsidiary of MRC, are 50:50 joint venture partners on the project.