Dubai’s Emirates National Oil Company (Enoc) is prequalifying companies for the expansion of its condensate refinery at the emirate’s Jebel Ali Port, according to sources in the UAE oil and gas sector.

The state-owned company is expected to tender the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the scheme later this year.

Enoc announced in 2012 that it plans to increase the capacity of the refinery by 20,000 barrels a day (b/d), to 140,000 b/d, through a process of debottlenecking to improve the oil flow.

Established in 1999, the refinery processes condensate to produce refined products, such as naphtha, jet fuel, reformate, diesel oil, fuel oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for local and export markets.

The Dubai government is in talks to build a second refinery in the emirate after signing an early agreement with Angolan and Chinese investors to build a facility to meet rising fuel demand.

Dubai agreed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with China Sonangol, a joint venture of Angola’s state oil producer Sonangol and Hong Kong-based New Bright International

A consortium will be created to oversee the front-end engineering and design (feed), greenfield project financing and process flow management.