The UAE’s International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic) has received bids for the engineering design work on a major oil refinery project in Fujairah.

Companies bidding for the front-end engineering design (feed) contract include US-based Fluor Corporation and French group Technip, according to a company active on the project.

Ipic is planning to build a 200,000 barrels a day (b/d) refinery in the east coast emirate of Fujairah for an estimated cost of $3bn, which will refine crude from the Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline (Adcop).

The refinery will be built near the terminal of the 1.5 million b/d pipeline, which is expected to start up later this year and close to the Fujairah deepwater export terminals.

State-owned Ipic is anticipated to award the feed contract by the end of June, with completion set for the start of 2013. The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract is expected to be tendered in the first quarter of next year.

The pre-feed work and the project management consultancy (PMC) contract for the feed phase were awarded to US-based Shaw Group subsidiary, Stone & Webster.

Ipic is wholly owned by the government of Abu Dhabi.