Oman Oil Company and International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic) have appointed France’s Credit Agricole as financial advisers on the pair’s planned refinery at Duqm.

The refinery is the first phase of an estimated $15bn development plan that includes the $6bn refinery and a $9bn petrochemicals complex by the refinery.

In mid-2013, Credit Agricole and the UK’s HSBC were shortlisted for the advisory contract. Ipic is also planning to develop a refinery in Fujairah, on the east coast of the UAE, estimated to cost about $3bn. HSBC is acting as financial adviser on that project.

The French bank is also understood to be favourite to win the financial advisory mandate for the $7.4bn Al-Sejeel project at Ras Laffan in Qatar. The project is being developed by Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Qatar Petrochemical Company (Qapco) and aims to produce 3 million tonnes a year (t/y) of chemicals including ethylene, high-density polyethylene, linear low-density polyethylene, polypropylene and butadiene.

In late September, the sponsors behind the Qatar project released the tender for the front-end engineering and design (feed) contract. QP and Qapco are aiming for the scheme to be operational by 2018.