Kurdistan LDPE Plant Retendered.

NPC has requested bidders to submit revised prices for the Kurdistan low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plant, planned along the western ethylene pipeline. Only a few million US dollars separated the three lowest bids when prices were opened in mid-June. In the original tender, a team of Uhde and the local Nargan submitted the lowest offer. Tecnimont and PIDEC came in second place. A JV of Daelim, Simon-Carves of the UK and Namvaran was the third. Lurgi with Sazeh Consult offered the highest price. The three lowest bidders proposed technology from Basell.

The project will have a capacity of 300,000 t/y and will be an exact replica of the $104m Amir Kabir  plant, but with some different offsites and altered soil and climate conditions. The Daelim/Simon-Carves/Namvaran team won that contract last year. Four new downstream units have recently been approved along the ethylene pipeline, in addition to the five originally planned. A 10th project is under study. A high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plant was awarded in January to a team of Uhde and Sazeh. Two swing HDPE/LDPE plants at Mahabad and Khoramabad are under technical evaluation, with bids from Samsung Engineering with Sazeh, Simon-Carves with Chagalesh and Tecnimont with Nargan. Each plant will have a capacity of 300,000 t/y.

In addition, a 500,000-t/y mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) plant at Gachsaran is out to bid among Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding with PIDEC, Tecnicas Reunidas with Sazeh, and Tecnimont with Nargan. The relatively rapid movement on tendering the western plants has been attributed to its semi-private management team.