Two groups have submitted bids for a plant that will be set up by Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) in Jubail as part of its Phase 3 expansion, news reports say.

The lump-sum turnkey contract covers the technology provision and engineering, procurement and construction of a mixed-feedstock cracker with capacity of 1.3 million tonnes a year. The cracker is the central element of the Sipchem complex, which will comprise a host of downstream units producing polyethylene, polypropylene, vinyl acetate monomer, polyvinyl acetate, methacrylate, sodium and hydrogen cyanide, carbon fibres, acrylonitrile and other products. The front-end engineering and design and project management contractor is the Houston office of Australia’s WorleyParsons.
The groups submitting bids for the $1.3 billion contract are Germany’s Linde with South Korea’s Samsung Engineering Company, and the US’ KBR with South Korea’s GS Engineering & Construction.
The lump-sum turnkey contract covers the technology provision and engineering, procurement and construction of a mixed-feedstock cracker with capacity of 1.3 million tonnes per year (tpy).
In another development, Sabic was widely reported to be in final talks to sign an agreement with Sipchem to take a majority stake in the complex.
It was reported that Sabic would look to retender the cracker contract to ethylene technology providers to make the bidding process more competitive.
Through its affiliates, International Methanol Company (IMC) and International Diol Company, Sipchem currently produces over 1 million tpy of methanol and 75,000 tpy of butanediol.
In the second half of 2006, Sipchem started construction of a major acetyls complex which consists of an acetic acid plant (460,000 tpy), a vinyl acetate monomer plant (330,000 tpy) and a carbon monoxide plant (345,000 tpy). Commercial operation of these plants is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2009.
In November 2006, Sipchem announced its Phase-3 development.