EPC Packages Awarded For Duqm Refinery

The award of three engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) packages was confirmed last week for the development of the 230,000 bpd Duqm refinery on Oman’s Al-Wusta coast.

The contracts were let by Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries Co. (DRPIC), a 50:50 joint venture between Oman Oil Co. (OOC) and Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI), set up to manage the US$7B project.

The signing ceremony follows the appointment by DRPIC in August 2017 of AMEC Foster Wheeler Engineering as project management contractor (PMC).

EPC Package 1 was assigned to a joint venture between Tecnidas Reunidas and Daewoo Engineering & Construction for the construction of process units. Ajoint venture between Petrofac International and Samsung Engineering won the second package, covering utilities and offsites, while the third parcel went to a joint venture between Saipem and CB&I.

Hilal Al Kharusi, deputy chairman of DRPIC, said that finalising the contract was an important milestone, as it “signifies the seriousness of the shareholders’ decision to proceed on the project.”

Initial work on Duqm is scheduled to begin in the third quarter. Kharusi said that financing had reached an advanced stage and that the company intended to issue notices to proceed to the contractors soon.

The project will take 47 months to complete in an area of 8 square km. A harbour, dry dock, roads and utilities are already under construction.

TR will take the lead on Package 1, holding a 65% share of the work, which calls for execution of all the process units under a lump-sum turnkey (LSTK) contract worth US$2.75 billion.

Petrofac and Samsung will cover engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, training and start-up operations for all the utilities and offsites under Package 2.

Saipem and CB&I will provide engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning under the US$750 million third package, which covers offsite facilities including a product export terminal, a crude tank farm and an 80-km crude oil pipeline.

Gas will be provided by the Saih Nihayda gas plant in central Oman and transported via a new gas supply station at Duqm through a 221-km pipeline.