Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) is expected to make a decision regarding the contract award of its planned acrylonitrile plant at Jubail in the Eastern Province of the kingdom by July.

MEED reported in April that clarification meetings had taken place with the three remaining bidders looking to win the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract. Commercial and technical submissions were made in early November, but new prices were submitted in late January. Since then, there has been no indication of either a frontrunner or any lowest bidder.

The budget is expected to be in excess of $500m and could be as high as $800m.

Sabic is developing the scheme with its joint venture Technology Partners Japan’s Mitsubishi and Asahi Kasei. Daelim Industrial has carried out the front-end engineering and design (feed) phase of the project.

The scope of work includes the construction of a 200,000 tonne-a-year (t/y) acrylonitrile plant alongside a 40,000 t/y sodium cyanide facility, and utilities and offsites.

Acrylonitrile is used as a binding agent to form products such as synthetic rubbers and polyamides. Sodium cyanide is a product used primarily in gold mining, as well as to extract other precious metals.