Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company (Takreer) will release the bid documents for a $700m deal to build a major new pipeline in the emirate on 11 March, contractors prequalified to bid on the deal tell MEED.

The state refiner will release a formal request for proposals and set deadlines for technical and commercial bids, outlining engineering and cost proposals for the deal contractors say.

The engineering, procurement and construction contract is one of the biggest pipeline deals to be tendered in the emirate in recent years. It is part of a scheme known as the inter-refinery pipelines project and covers a 230 kilometres of pipeline linking the Abu Dhabi refinery with Takreer’s Ruwais refinery.

Other pipelines will link the Ruwais refinery, the Abu Dhabi refinery, the Al-Ain storage depot, the Mussafah distribution depot and Abu Dhabi International airport. France’s Technip is due to complete a front end engineering and design (Feed) study for the scheme in May 2010.

Firms prequalified to bid on the deal include Techint and Saipem, both of Italy, South Korea’s Samsung Engineering, Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC), India’s Dodsal and Larsen & Toubro, and Paris-based Technip, sources close to the deal say.

Firms submitted technical bids for another deal on the project, covering gasoline storage tanks at Mussafah, in February (MEED 3:3:10).