Oman Gas Company (OGC) has issued an expression of interest to banks to finance its Salalah liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) plant.

Local Bank Muscat and Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ (MUFG) are the mandated lead arrangers.

The syndicated loan could be finalised before the end of 2016, banking sources told MEED. It is expected to be around $600m.

US-based CB&I and the UK’s Petrofac are the bidders for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract, after carrying out the front-end engineering and design (feed) study.

The plant is expected to produce 153,000 tonnes per year of propane 115,000 tonnes of butane and 59,000 tonnes of condensate, extracted from LPG from the nearby Salalah gas field.

Spain’s Tecna carried out the concept study.

OGC is a subsidiary of state-owned Oman Oil Company (OOC).

Another subsidiary of OOC, Salalah Methanol Company, is expected to borrow around $300m for its 1000 tonne a day ammonia plant.

The UK’s Standard Chartered and local Bank Dhofar have been mandated to arrange the loan.