Four international groups are prequalified to bid for the EPC package. They are Germany's Krupp Uhde; a Japanese group of Chiyoda Corporationand Mitsubishi Heavy Industries; Paris-based Technip-Coflexip; and a group made up of Japan's JGC Corporation, Italy's Snamprogettiand US-based Halliburton KBR. The UK office of US-based Foster Wheeler Corporationis the front-end engineering and design (FEED) contractor.

The project will be financed by a 70:30 debt/equity package, with the debt being covered by a 10-14-year loan of $700 million. The preliminary information memorandum (PIM) for the borrowing is due to be sent out to banks by the end of August with financial close scheduled for December. The financial adviser is the Royal Bank of Scotland(MEED 12:7:02; 24:5:02).

The plant, to be located in Ras Laffan, will have a capacity of 34,000 barrels a day (b/d). It will use 330 million cubic feet a day of lean gas, produced from the enhanced gas utilisation (EGU) project, as feedstock. Based on Sasol's slurry phase distillate technology, the plant will produce 24,000 b/d of fuel, 9,000 b/d of naphtha and 1,000 b/d of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).