The state-owned Oman Refinery and Petrochemicals Company (ORPC) has invited firms to bid by 2 August for the front-end engineering and project management contract on its $200m Sohar refinery expansion project.

The tender was released after the project’s feasibility study was approved by Oman’s Financial Affairs & Energy Resources Council. An award is expected before the end of 2010.

The project involves boosting the 220,000 barrels-a-day facility’s crude and long residue capacity, as well as increasing naphtha capacity to 1.5 million tonnes a year.  

The tender for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the refinery, located at the Sohar Port in northern Oman, is expected to be released in the fourth quarter of 2011.

ORPC is owned by the Finance Ministry, which has a 75 per cent share and the Oman Oil Company that has the remaining 25 per cent.