5 bid for new SABIC plastic plant

Project investment pegged at $400 million Fluor Corp, Bechtel to help develop industrial city

KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia, Dec 2, (RTRS): Five international engineering firms have bid to build a 50,000 tonnes-per-year polyacetal plant at Ibn Sina, an affiliate of Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), industry sources said.

SABIC said in 2010 the project, producing a plastic which is mainly used in the car industry, would require investment of nearly $400 million.

Spain’s Dragados, China National Chemical Engineering Co (CNCEC), Taiwan’s CTCI, South Korea’s Hanwha Engineering and SK Engineering and Construction have all made bids.

Bidding closed on Nov. 28 after it was extended from an October deadline, the sources said.

National Methanol Co, better known as Ibn Sina, is 50-percent owned by SABIC, the world’s largest chemical company, while Celanese Corp and an affiliate of Duke Energy Corp each have a 25 percent-stake. KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia, Dec 2, (RTRS): Saudi mining firm Maaden signed deals worth 977 million Saudi riyals ($260 million) with US firms Fluor Corp and Bechtel to help develop an industrial city in the country’s north, it said.

Saudi Arabia, home to the world’s largest oil reserves, is keen to develop its mining industry to diversify the economy away from relying on oil.

Under one contract, worth 745 million riyals, Fluor Arabia will provide engineering consultancy services and

The plant was originally planned to start up by 2013 with engineering and construction work beginning by 2011.

SABIC’s CEO said last month the manage the construction of a new phosphate project for Maaden, called Umm Wual in Waad Al-Shimal City for Mining Industries, Maaden said in a bourse statement issued late on Saturday.

Maaden also signed two other contracts worth 232 million riyals with Bechtel Arabia to monitor and manage the project to develop the city as well as preliminary designs of the infrastructure of the Waad Al-Shimal city.

The contracts run through late 2016, when phosphate production is expected company has given the go-ahead for the polyacetal plant, which will use methanol feedstock from Ibn Sina.

Some Saudi petrochemical companies have said they have faced diffi- to start from the mega project estimated to cost 26 billion riyals.

The scheme will have a production capacity of 16 million tonnes per year of phosphate concentrate, sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, as well as plants to produce calcium monophosphate and calcium diphosphate.

Saudi Arabia’s cabinet approved in February the establishment of the new city.

The Umm Wual project would add nearly 1.5 million tonnes annually of phosphorus oxide to Maaden’s planned phosphate capacity. culties sourcing feedstock supplies for new projects as the oil-rich kingdom balances their claims for gas supplies against the need to use it for power generation.