South Korea’s Samsung Engineering has emerged as the frontrunner to win the main contract on a carbon black chemicals project in Abu Dhabi, according to sources close to the bidding process.

Samsung submitted the lowest offer on the 9 May deadline for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the project owned by Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company (Takreer) at Ruwais, 240 kilometres west of Abu Dhabi city.

Other companies bidding for the contract included four South Korean firms, Daewoo Engineering & Construction, GS Engineering & Construction, Hyundai Engineering & Construction and SK Engineering, and Italy’s Saipem.

The estimated $2bn contract includes the construction of a carbon black plant at Takreer’s Ruwais refining complex and also includes an integrated delayed coker unit and hydrogen processing facilities. The exact values of the EPC bids were not disclosed.

The project has already been delayed several times due to technology licensing and design problems, with the 9 May deadline pushed back from an earlier date in April.

Carbon black is a pure form of elemental carbon produced by the incomplete combustion of heavy petroleum products such as fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) tar, coal tar and ethylene cracking tar. Its main uses are in tyres, rubber, plastics, printing inks and coatings to colour products black and enhancing certain physical properties.