Oman’s Octal Petrochemicals has secured $296m funding for its proposed second phase expansion at its polyethylene terephthalate (PET) complex in Salalah in the south of Oman.

In a statement Octal said the loan was secured from a group of Middle East banks that included Bank Muscat, Bank Dhofar, National Bank of Oman, Bank Sohar, Ahli Bank and Qatar National Bank.

“Our phase II is on track and we are confident that it will be completed on time in April or May of 2012,” Nicholas Barakat, managing director, Octal, tells MEED. “We are planning to award the EPC [engineering, procurement and construction] contract in the next few weeks.”

Barakat declined to name any of the bidders citing confidentiality issues. The technology provider for the new facility will be Germany’s Uhde Inventa-Fischer.

Octal opened its 400,000 tonne-a-year (t/y) plant producing PET resins and sheet packaging facility in the southeast port city of Salalah in January 2009.

The phase II involves converting the current facilities to produce 100 per cent PET sheet and building a new plant that will make 527,000-t/y of PET resin.  

The new plant will make Octal the world’s largest producer of PET on a single site.