Duqm Refinery, the largest single-phase downstream project to be undertaken in Oman, has begun receiving commercial bids for its process unit and offsite and utilities packages, according to an official spokesperson from the project owner.

“We’re still receiving bids, and we expect to receive some more,” he said.

MEED reported that 20 February was the deadline for consortia to submit prices on the two main engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) packages on the project to build a greenfield refinery.

The multi-billion dollar refinery will have a capacity to process 230,000 barrels a day (b/d) in the central Omani port of Duqm. It is a joint venture between Oman Oil Company (OOC) and Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI), which replaced Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic) as joint shareholder last year.

In March 2016, the refinery received final technical submissions from bidders on the same packages.

Consortia that bid on the oil processing facilities package are understood to be:

• CB&I (Netherlands-based) / CTCI (Taiwan)
• JGC (Japan) / GS Engineering & Construction (South Korea) / Saipem (Italy)
• Petrofac (UK) / Samsung Engineering (South Korea) / Chiyoda (Japan)
• Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain) / Daewoo Engineering & Construction (South Korea)

Bidders for the second package covering facilities, utilities tankage and buildings that supporting the process are understood to be:

• CB&I / CTCI
• Daelim (South Korea) / Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea) / Hyundai Engineering (South Korea)
• JGC / GS Engineering & Construction / Saipem
• Petrofac / Samsung Engineering
• Tecnicas Reunidas / Daewoo Engineering & Construction

A third tender has been issued to pre-qualified bidders for the construction of off-site facilities, which consists of product storage and export terminal, crude storage facility at Ras Markaz as well as an 80km pipeline joining the storage facility with the refinery complex.

Project management contract on the Duqm refinery has yet to be awarded. The companies in the running for the contract are:

• Amec Foster Wheeler (UK)
• Bechtel (US)
• KBR (US)
• Technip (France)

The project to build the refinery at Duqm is part of the sultanate’s efforts to diversify its economy by developing the central Omani town as an energy and logistics hub. Similar efforts are also underway at port towns of Sohar and Salalah.