The local Sabic Terminal Services Company (Sabtank) has released the tender for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of a $450m expansion of its facilities at the Jubail Industrial Port in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.

The joint venture of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) and the Netherlands’ Vopak has prequalified at least five international contractors for the scheme. The prequalified contractors include:

• Hanwha Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Petrol Steel (Local/Singapore)
• Sinopec (China)
• SK Engineering & Construction

The bids are being formulated by the contractors now,” says a contracting source based in Saudi Arabia. “The submission date is 31 May and a decision is expected for the third quarter.”  

Bidding is expected to be competitive, but industry sources are citing recent sharp increases in the local steel price as a major considering factor for such a large tank project. The project is being executed on a lump-sum turnkey basis.

The main scope of the expansion is the construction of 37 storage tanks with a total capacity of 330,000 cubic metres. A handling unit will also need to be constructed as well as berth facilities, substation, fire fighting 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 hold 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.  

Another major tank farm contract due to become available in Jubail during 2012 will be the port facilities attached to the Sadara Chemical Company’s $20bn petrochemical complex.