The Sadara Chemical Company has refused to extend the tender submission date for the main tank farm engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) package at its $20bn petrochemicals complex in Jubail.

Prequalified contractors are working on bids towards the submission date, set for 1 October by the joint venture partners, Saudi Aramco and the US’ Dow Chemical. 

“We are working on the bid now and should be ready for the deadline,” says a source from one of the contractors. “There was some talk of an extension, but I think Aramco and Dow refused and will stick to 1 October.”

MEED reported in August that the joint venture partners have already extended the bid deadline to 1 October (MEED 8:8:11).

The main tank farm will house about 62 tanks of various sizes. The value is estimated to be about $400m.

“The tanks vary because of the volumes of different chemicals,” says the source. “This is not like a large refinery job that requires huge tanks.”

Contractors competing for the package include:

• Chicago Bridge & Iron (US)
• Daewoo Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Larsen & Toubro (India)
• Petrol Steel (Singapore/local)
• Punj Lloyd (India)

The Sadara project does have two other tank packages available. One is a small, technical package covering two cryogenics tanks at the site.

The other is larger and will be built on an 800,000 square metre site at the Jubail port. The engineering for the package will be executed by the US’ Fluor, which will then release a procurement and construction tender in early 2012.

Sadara Chemical Company is the new name for the joint venture between Aramco and Dow. The complex will have a capacity of about 8 million tonnes a year (t/y) and will be constructed at Jubail Industrial City 2 in the Eastern Province of the kingdom.

The complex will produce a number of speciality chemicals aimed at pushing Saudi Arabia’s petrochemicals industry further downstream.