Dubai-owned Emirates National Oil Company (Enoc) has awarded the final contract on its $1bn scheme to expand the Jebel Ali Refinery.

The local Overseas-AST has been awarded the contract to build interconnecting pipelines between the refinery’s processing units, storage tanks and berth facilities within the Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza).

The pipelines, which range from 24 inches in diameter to 17 kilometres in length, will carry jet fuel, isomerate and light and heavy naphtha.

The Jebel Ali refinery expansion project was announced in September 2016, with Italy’s Technip being awarded the main EPC contract for design and construction of the refinery’s new ancilliary units. The second EPC contract was awarded to Rotary Engineering Fujairah to construct 12 new storage tanks.

Commercial production from the expansion is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2019. The expansion will boost the production of the refinery to 210,000 barrels per day (b/pd) from the current 140,000 b/pd.

The front-end engineering and design (feed) study on the project was carried out by US-based KBR, while the licensor technology has been provided by the US’ Honeywell UOP, French group Axens and Italy’s KT.