Abu Dhabi’s Taziz has awarded the main engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to build a complex of specialty chemical plants in the Taziz Industrial Chemicals Zone at Ruwais Industrial City.

China National Chemical Engineering & Construction Corporation Seven (CC7) has won the EPC contract, valued at $1.99bn, to build the chemicals cluster known as Project Salt.

In late September, MEED reported that CC7 was the frontrunner to win the EPC contract for Project Salt.

The facility will produce 1.9 million tonnes a year of marketable polyvinyl chloride (PVC), ethylene dichloride (EDC), vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) and caustic soda.

EPC works on the project are expected to be completed by Q4 2028.

The contract award was announced at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (Adipec), taking place from 3 to 6 November in Abu Dhabi.

Project Salt’s contract award “marks a major step forward in delivering Taziz’s strategic mandate to drive industrial growth, localise supply chains, and enable new value chains in the UAE”, Taziz said in a statement.

“These chemicals are critical to serving growing demand in sectors such as construction, infrastructure, packaging and healthcare, both in the UAE and internationally,” it added.

Project Salt tendering phase

South Korean contractor Samsung E&A was understood to be the only other bidder for Project Salt.

MEED previously reported that contractors had submitted technical bids for EPC works on Project Salt by the deadline of 15 July.

Adnoc received commercial bids from contractors for Project Salt by the deadline of 15 August, according to sources.

Adnoc had initially set deadlines of 15 June and 23 July for contractors to submit technical and commercial bids for the project, respectively.

Taziz first announced the EDC, chlor alkali and PVC plants in December 2021. India’s Reliance Industries was named as the main investor in the chemicals plants at the time.

Reliance is understood to have pulled out of Project Salt and has been replaced by France-based Kem One, MEED previously reported.

Last year, Germany-headquartered Thyssenkrupp Uhde won feed contracts for the EDC and chlor alkali plants, while France-based Technip Energies won the deal for the PVC facility.

The planned EDC plant will utilise chlorine from the associated chlor alkali plant as its main feedstock and will have a production capacity of up to 1.2 million tonnes a year (t/y).

Part of the EDC output will, in turn, be used as feedstock by the PVC plant, which is planned to have a production capacity of 350,000 t/y.

Surplus quantities of EDC and caustic soda from the chlor alkali plant are intended to be exported.

Taziz chemicals zone

Since 2021, Taziz has attracted investments from several foreign investors for its planned chemicals projects in the under-construction Taziz Industrial Chemicals Zone in Ruwais.

Taziz has planned seven chemicals derivatives projects as part of the first phase of its zone.

UK-headquartered Wood Group has performed the feed works on the seven projects, which are:

Chemicals production is a priority sector for Operation 300bn, the UAE’s industrial growth strategy.

The strategy is being overseen by the Industry & Advanced Technology Ministry, which aims to raise the UAE industrial sector’s contribution to the national GDP to AED300bn ($81.7bn) by 2031.

In December 2021, Taziz secured agreements from eight UAE-based entities for investments in its planned chemicals projects in Ruwais. The agreements marked the first domestic public-private partnership in Abu Dhabi’s downstream oil, gas and petrochemicals sector.

In addition to the three chemicals plants planned under Project Salt, a joint venture of UAE-based Fertiglobe, South Korea’s GS Energy Corporation and Japanese investment firm Mitsui & Company has invested in a “world-scale” blue ammonia production facility in the Ruwais petrochemicals derivatives complex.

The Fertiglobe/GS Energy/Mitsui joint venture awarded Italian contractor Tecnimont the EPC contract for the project in May 2024. Construction on the facility started in June last year.

Separately, in February, Taziz awarded Samsung E&A the main EPC contract to build the UAE’s first methanol plant in the Taziz Industrial Chemicals Zone. The value of the EPC contract is $1.7bn and the duration of works is 44 months.

The nameplate production capacity of the planned methanol complex is 5,000 metric tonnes a day, or 1.8 million metric t/y. Switzerland-based energy and chemicals company Proman is a joint investor in the project.

Supporting infrastructure

Regarding infrastructure to support the various projects, Taziz awarded three EPC contracts totalling $2bn in November.

Abu Dhabi government-owned NMDC Group was awarded the EPC contract to build a chemicals port. Once complete, the port will facilitate the export of chemicals and fuels.

Singapore-based Rotary Engineering won the EPC contract for a chemicals terminal known as Project Landing. The contract includes developing storage facilities, tank-to-jetty pipelines, jetty-to-tank pipelines, inter-site pipelines and liquid product storage. Taziz is building the chemicals-handling terminal in partnership with Netherlands-based midstream energy company Advario.

Abu Dhabi-based Al-Geemi Contracting was awarded the EPC contract to develop essential infrastructure for the 17-square-kilometre Taziz chemicals production site, including internal roads, security fencing and buildings.

Contracts have also been awarded for the development of a centralised utilities facility for the Taziz Industrial Chemicals Zone, which will include power transmission, steam, cooling water and water units.

Adnoc signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) in June 2021 to develop a cogeneration power facility in Ruwais. In December, the partners awarded a $1bn contract to Kuwait-based Alghanim International for the project, and the contractor started construction of the facility in February this year.

Alghanim International, in turn, awarded a $67m sub-contract to Riyadh-based water utility developer Water & Environment Technologies Company (Wetico) for the comprehensive water facilities package of the cogeneration power facility, which includes the construction of a seawater desalination plant, demineralisation plant, condensate polishing unit and effluent treatment plant.