Four engineering companies have been asked to submit bids to manage the construction phase of Oman’s Duqm refinery project.

According to the website of project owner Duqm Refinery, the companies vying for the project management consultancy (PMC) contract are:

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

Duqm Refinery is planning to build a 230,000 barrel-a-day facility at the port on the coast of the Al-Wusta province in central Oman.

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

Duqm Refinery is currently assessing the bids for the two main engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) packages for the respective process units, and offsites and utilities. The original technical EPC bids were submitted in March.

Duqm Refinery was initially a joint venture of Oman Oil Company (OOC) and Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic). However, Ipic has pulled out of the scheme and OOC announced last week it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Kuwait Petroleum International to jointly own the project.