Most of the downstream projects planned along the pipeline were being tendered by Petrochemical Industries Design & Management Company (Pidmco), which itself was critical of Linde's price: it compared the bid to the 270m ($343m) offered by France's Technip and the local Nargan for the 1m t/y olefins 9 plant, the contract for which came into force in late 2001.
"The solution is neat, but Pidmco's cost estimates seem at best ambitious - at worst fanciful.