South Korea's Daelim Industrial  is the front runner for deals to build parts of a giant petrochemical complex owned by state oil giant Saudi Aramco and US Dow Chemical, industry sources said.

Daelim submitted the lowest bid for the construction projects, which include production for toluene di-isocyanate (TDI), methylene di-para phenylene isocyanate (MDI), dinitrotoluene (DNT), mononitrobenzene (MNB), analine, formaline, sources said.

"I believe it is Daelim, I think it will go to them," one source said.

Two other sources told Reuters Daelim was in a "good position" to win the deals.

A Dow spokesperson was unavailable to comment when contacted by Reuters.

While industry sources say the deals are now being finalised, a spokesman from Daelim said last week that "nothing has been confirmed" when asked if Daelim was the lowest bidder.

South Korea's Samsung Engineering has also bid for the deals. A Samsung Engineering official said no results of the tender have come out yet.

Aramco and Dow are spending $20 billion on the venture -- Sadara Chemical Co -- to build one of the world's largest petrochemical facilities  in Jubail, on the Gulf coast.

In July, Daelim won a contract to build a mixed feed cracker for the petrochemical complex, which will produce more than 3 million metric tonnes annually of the chemical products and plastics used in packaging, furniture, electronics and scores of other consumer goods.

South Korean firms have been very competitive in bidding for energy projects across the Gulf region. Daelim is building a gasoline unit and a hydrocracker at the new 400,000 bpd refinery in Yanbu for Saudi Aramco.

Samsung won in March deals worth $2.76 billion from Aramco to build natural gas liquids (NGL) project in Shaybah oil field and secured $461.7 million deal for Aramco's Wasit gas plant. – Reuters