India’s IOT Infrastructure & Energy Services has been awarded a contract to build an estimated $82m oil storage facility in Fujairah, UAE.

The estimated $82m engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract was awarded by UAE-based trading group Primestar Energy and India’s Instrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS), the joint venture partners behind the scheme.

The contract was tendered in the first quarter of 2012 and the operators received commercial proposals from several contractors in May. The contract award was delayed while the operators looked for financing, which they eventually secured from a consortium of banks led by India’s Bank of Baroda in September.

The terminal will have a storage capacity of 600,000 cubic metres, which is the equivalent of 3.77 million barrels of crude oil. Sharjah-based MUC Oil & Gas Engineering Consultancy is acting as the main consultant for the project. IOT is expected to commission the terminal by mid-2014.

Fujairah is in the process of a major expansion in oil and oil products storage capacity. The emirate will benefit from the Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline (Adcop) coming on stream in August, as well as a major refinery project in development.