The Stroytransgaz/Bahwan bid of RO 32.3 million ($82.8 million) is 7 per cent lower than its nearest rivals, a team of Italy's Saipemwith Athens-based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC), which has quoted RO 34.5 million ($88.5 million). Dubai-based Dodsalis third lowest bidder at RO 34.6 million ($88.7 million).

The contract covers the supply and installation of a 24-inch diameter, 260-kilometre-long pipeline to transport crude oil and naphtha from Mina al-Fahal to Sohar, where it will feed the 116,000-barrel-a-day refinery, which is currently under construction. The front-end engineering and design (FEED) contractor was ILF & Partners Oman, a subsidiary of Germany's ILF Partners.

The pipeline will tie into a pressure reduction terminal at Sohar, for which two local companies, Arabian Industriesand Special Technical Services, are the low bidders on the two different options (MEED 7:5:04).