Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) is still evaluating bids for its planned acrylonitrile plant at Jubail in the Eastern Province of the kingdom

MEED reported that commercial and technical submissions were made in early November, but clarification meetings have since taken place and new prices were submitted in late January. Since then, there has been no indication of either a frontrunner or any lowest bidder.

Three engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors are looking to win the deal to build the facility, which has a budget of between $500m-$1bn. All three are still said to be in contention.

The three contractors are:

• Daelim Industrial (South Korea)
• Samsung Engineering (South Korea)
• Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain)

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.