The local Sabic Terminal Services Company (Sabtank) has asked contractors to resubmit commercial bids for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract at its $450m expansion at the Jubail Industrial Port in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.

Five bidders submitted their completed tenders on 1 July, but the revised commercial bids are expected on 25 August. Sabtank is expected to shortlist two of the remaining five contractors after these final bids are submitted. The project is being executed on a lump-sum turnkey (LSTK) basis.

“There have been a couple of modifications to the scope, so fresh commercials are being formulated now,” says a source familiar with the project. “The bids from all contractors should be for increased sums.”

The source adds that modifications include some tanks having their capacities increased in order to hold more chemicals.

The contractors who have submitted bids include:

• China National Chemical Corporation (China)
• Hanwha Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Petrol Steel (Local/Singapore)
• Sinopec (China)
• Wison (China)

The main scope of the expansion is the construction of 37 storage tanks with a total capacity of more than 330,000 cubic metres. A handling unit will also need to be constructed, as well as berth facilities, substation, firefighting facilities and truck loading and unloading facilities. The tanks will be mainly used to store petrochemical products produced at the Jubail Industrial City before export.

MEED reported in October 2011 that local petrochemicals companies, such as National Industrialisation Company (Tasnee), Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) and the Sahara Petrochemicals Company, were interested in acquiring a stake in the new expanded facilities.

Vopak is the operator of the Sabtank facilities at Jubail and holds a 10 per cent stake, with Sabic holding the remaining 90 per cent. The existing facilities include almost 1.3 million cubic metres of capacity, which can be held in 77 tanks.