Jubail United Petrochemical Company (United), a wholly owned Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) affiliate, has awarded the engineering, procurement and construction contract (EPC) for its ethylene plant to a consortium comprising Halliburton KBR, Chiyoda Corporation and Mitsubishi Corporation (MC), Sabic said in a release.

United is building a mega-olefin complex at Jubail Industrial City in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The company's plans include an ethane cracker to produce 1,000,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of ethylene, a 150,000 tpy linear alpha olefins plant, a 575,000 tpy ethylene glycol (EG) plant and 50 per cent ownership in an 800,000 tpy polyethylene (PE) plant being built by another wholly owned Sabic subsidiary, Petrokemya. The mechanical completion of the ethylene project is scheduled for 32 months and the project will be on stream by October 2004.

"The EPC contract was awarded through an international competitive bidding process. The consortium offered a technically reliable and commercially competitive proposal based on Halliburton KBR's leading ethylene process, Chiyoda's EPC experience in Saudi Arabia and MC's commercial support," said Sabic.