Plans to build a new refinery in Fujairah on the UAE’s eastern coast have been scrapped after several years of delays in the pre-execution phase, according to several sources familiar with the project.

Abu Dhabi’s state-run investment arm International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic) has been developing the 200,000 barrel-a-day (b/d) scheme for over six years but construction never started.

Ipic tendered the two main engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) packages on the scheme in September 2013, and received commercial bids in March 2015. The packages were estimated to be valued at well over $3bn combined.

Companies submitting commercial proposals for the first package – the larger deal covering the refinery’s process units – were all based in South Korea and included GS Engineering & Construction and Samsung Engineering.

State-owned Ipic planned the facility to meet rising demand for fuels in the UAE and enable the export of oil products from the port of Fujairah on the east coast of the country.

The scheme was delayed by at least four years. When Ipic awarded the front-end engineering and design (feed) study contract in 2011, the project was scheduled for completion for 2016.

Ipic could not be reached for comment on the status of the Fujairah refinery project. 

The Fujairah refinery is one of a number of downstream projects Ipic has pulled out of or cancelled in recent years.

Last year Ipic was replaced as a joint venture partner in a project to build a new export refinery in Duqm on the central coast of Oman – a scheme that has also faced significant delays.

Oman Oil Company (OOC) is now developing the Duqm project in a 50:50 joint venture with Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI), a subsidiary of Kuwait’s state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.

Abu Dhabi National Chemicals Company (Chemaweyaat), which is majority owned by Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic), last year put on hold its $1bn-plus Tacaamol aromatics plant in Ruwais.

Much of the production capacity planned at Tacaamol will now be incorporated into the new Gasoline and Aromatics Project (GAP) project at the Ruwais refinery. However, this project owned by Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company (Takreer) – a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).

Ipic itself is undergoing a merger with fellow Abu Dhabi investment vehicle Mubadala Development Company. In January a new entity, Mubadala Investment Company, was established to manage the combined assets of the two companies, valued at about $130bn.