Petroleos Mexicanos Receives Five Bids for $504 Million Expansion of Cangrejera Petrochemical Complex

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) (Mexico City), a state-owned petroleum firm, has received bids from five consortia comprising 13 companies interested in being part of the capacity expansion of Pemex's Cangrejera petrochemical complex in Mexico. Pemex plans to invest $504 million over the next three years, of which $63 million will be made in 2009, in order to set up three new plants and double the paraxylene production capacity of the complex to 488,000 tons per year. The firm is expected to announce the name of the winning bidder on May 25. The contract is scheduled for execution in 993 days.

Among the consortia that placed bids for the project is ICA Fluor, a joint venture between Empresas ICA SA (NYSE:ICA) (Mexico City) and Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) (Irving, Texas).

A consortium of Carso Infraestructura y Construccion SAB de CV (MXK:CICSAB) (Granada, Mexico), the construction division of Grupo Carso SA de CV (Mexico City), and SNC-Lavalin Group Incorporated (TSX:SNC) (Montreal, Quebec) also placed a bid.

Dragados Industrial (Madrid, Spain), a subsidiary of Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA (MCE:ACS) (Madrid), teamed up with Senermex Ingeniería y Sistemas SA de CV (Mexico City).

OHL Industrial (Madrid), a subsidiary of Obrascon Huarte Lain SA (MCE:OHL) (Madrid), and Inelectra North America SA de CV (Monterrey, Mexico) placed a joint bid.

The fifth bid was placed by Maire Tecnimont Spa (BIT:MT) (Rome, Italy) in collaboration with its Mexican subsidiary Tecnimont Mexico.

The tender, floated by the corporate engineering and project development division of Pemex, pertains to the first phase of the expansion project, which will be aimed at improving the efficiency of the naphtha reforming process by using fewer raw materials. The five consortia submitted proposals for construction of new units that would employ the platforming technology, a reformation process based on continuous catalytic regeneration.

The bids also include proposals for allied works and ancillary services required to integrate the new plants with the existing facilities. The scope of the tender also encompasses detailed engineering, procurement of permits, supply of materials, construction, installation and testing, documentation of the continuous catalytic reforming process, and provision of ancillary services.

The second phase of the project will focus on increasing the paraxylene production capacity of the complex. Through the modernization and expansion initiative, Pemex intends to cater to domestic demand at competitive rates and reduce Mexico's dependence on imports for petrochemical products.

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