Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company (Takreer) has extended the tender closing date by another month for its planned new carbon black plant, due to ongoing technology licensing and design problems.

The 14 prequalified engineering and construction firms have now been asked to submit technical proposals on 6 December and commercial offers on 6 February, according to contractor sources.

“There are problems with the technology licence and feed [front-end engineering and design], so any contractor that bids will ask for lots of technical clarification, which will slow the bidding process down,” says a source at one of the firms.

These include:

• Bechtel (US)
• CTCI (Taiwan)
• GS Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea)
• JGC (Japan)
• Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan)
• Saipem (Italy) with Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain)
• Samsung Engineering (South Korea)
• SK Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Techint (Italy)
• Technip (France)
• Tecnimont (Italy)

Tenders were originally launched in mid-July with planned deadlines of 6 October and 5 December. Takreer, a subsidiary of state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) pushed the deadline back in September as it was still waiting for technology licences from at least one provider, which was causing problems in the feed (MEED 21:10:11).

The US’ Bechtel is carrying out the feed for the plant at Ruwais in the west of the country, while Australia’s Worley Parsons is the project management consultant.