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Wood wins contract on Abu Dhabi methanol project

28 May 2025

UK-headquartered Wood Group will provide project management consultancy services for a project to build the UAE’s first methanol plant in the Taziz Industrial Chemicals Zone in Abu Dhabi’s Ruwais Industrial City.

Switzerland-based energy and chemicals company Proman is a joint investor in the methanol project with Taziz.

The planned methanol complex’s nameplate production capacity is 5,000 metric tonnes a day, or 1.8 million metric tonnes a year (t/y).

“Around 40 Wood project management consultants, supported by experts at the company’s regional energy transition hub, will work with Taziz’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor to successfully deliver this project,” Aberdeen-headquartered Wood said in a statement.

South Korean contractor Samsung E&A won an estimated $1.7bn contract in February to perform the project’s EPC works, which will last 44 months.

MEED reported in November last year that Samsung E&A had emerged as the frontrunner to win the main EPC contract.

The only other bidder for the project was a consortium of French contractor Technip Energies and India-based Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon.

The two entities submitted technical bids for the project by the deadline of 22 July 2024, and commercial bids by 16 September.

Proman signed a shareholder agreement with Taziz in January 2023 for the planned methanol project. The two companies initially announced the project in March 2022.

Technip Energies has performed the front-end engineering and design (feed) work on the methanol project, having won the contract in September 2022.

The Proman/Taziz joint venture (JV) issued the expressions of interest document to contractors for the methanol project’s EPC tendering exercise in August 2023. Contractors submitted prequalification documents by 21 August.

Proman and Taziz issued the main tender for EPC works on the planned methanol project on 17 January last year. The JV initially set a deadline of 17 April for the submission of technical bids. This was then extended to 17 June, and later to 22 July.

Methanol is a critical chemical building block with industrial applications in fuels, adhesives, solvents, pharmaceuticals and construction materials. Emerging economies in Africa and Asia are expected to drive growth in methanol demand, while methanol production in the UAE will reduce reliance on imports.

ALSO READ: Fertiglobe expects Rabdan final investment decision in 2026
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Indrajit Sen

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