Kuwait International Petroleum Company (KPC) awarded a contract of US$ 4.61 billion to Oman Oil Company (OOC) to develop a refinery project of 230,000 barrels per day in the Duqm area of Oman.
The Duqm Refinery project consists of the development, construction and operation of the refinery, site facilities, infrastructure and storage. Along with off-site facilities, including crude oil storage facilities in the Ras Mrkaz area, a crude oil pipeline of 80 km to the refinery and the export terminal at Duqm port.
The refinery is designed to be able to process a range of blended crude oils and is configured as a complete conversion hydrocracker/coking facility, which will use advanced technology, commercially proven in the scope of the project. And it will be supplied by leading technology licensors.
The contract of US$ 4.61 billion to Oman Oil Company is the largest project financing in Oman. It is provided by 29 reputed financial institutions from 13 countries, as well as insurance and guarantees (cover) provided by three major export credit agencies.
Engineering, procurement and construction of the project is being carried out under three full-contract contracts with world-class contractors.
The project consists of an international commercial facility, a local commercial and an Islamic facility. Besides a UK (UKEF)-covered, a Spanish (CESCE)-covered, a South Korean (K-EXIM) covered facilities along with a K-EXIM direct facility.
The joint venture between KPC and OOC is located in the Special Economic Zone in Duqm (Sezad), along the southeastern coast of the Sultanate.
The project, which is considered to be of strategic importance and priority national investment for the Sultanate of Oman, is the first of its kind from other aspects. It is the first large cross-border oil refining project in the Middle East and is also the first joint project of a refinery project in the region between state oil companies Two from the Middle East. In addition, it is the first refinery in the Middle East to process crude from another Middle Eastern country on a long-term contractual basis.
NβN tip: David Kalife is the Chief Executive Officer at Oman Oil Marketing Company
