Duqm Refinery has set a deadline for commercial engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) bids on its project to build a greenfield refinery in the central Oman port of Duqm.

Consortiums have been asked to submit prices on the two main EPC packages by 20 February, according to sources familiar with the project.

Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries Company, a joint venture of Oman Oil Company (OOC) and Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI), is planning to build a refinery with the capacity to process 230,000 barrels a day (b/d) of oil.

Duqm Refinery received the final technical submissions from bidders for EPC packages one and two, which cover the process units package and the utilities and offsites package, in March 2016.

The bidders for the first package – covering oil processing facilities – are understood to include:

• 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)

The second contract covers the facilities, utilities tankage and buildings that support the process. The bidders are understood to include:

• 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 tender has been sent to prequalified bidders for a third package covering offsite facilities. These consist of the product storage and export terminal, Crude storage tanks in Ras Markaz, and an 80 kilometre crude pipeline from Ras Markaz to the refinery complex.

Another package covering site preparation work has been completed. The work comprised the excavation and compaction of more than 12 million cubic metres of material.

Four engineering companies are vying for the project management consultancy (PMC) contract. They are:

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

The refinery is the largest single-phase downstream oil project ever undertaken in Oman, and is a key development of the government’s plans to establish Duqm as a regional energy and logistics hub.

Earlier in January Royal Boskalis Westminster of the Netherlands was selected by the Special Economic Zone Authority for Duqm (Sezad), for a contract to build the Port of Duqm liquid terminal project.

The company submitted the lowest bid of RO162m ($421.91m) for the design, dredging and marine infrastructure works on the new liquid bulk berths at the port.