Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company (Takreer) has signed two contracts worth more than $700m with South Korean firms for the construction of a new lubricants refinery and storage facilities in the emirate.

The state-owned refinery company signed the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts with Daewoo Engineering & Construction and Hyundai Engineering & Construction at formal ceremonies held on 15 July, sources close to the schemes confirm to MEED.

The contractors received formal letters of awards for the projects earlier in 2010, with the contract signing formally closing the deals.

Daewoo won the $270m EPC contract to build new storage tanks at Takreer’s Mussaffah storage depot in April. The contract is part of a second-phase scheme to link the country’s refineries known as the inter-refinery pipeline project (IRP) 2.

Hyundai’s contract covers the construction of a 500,000 tonne a year base oils refinery, which will produce high-quality lubricants for use in the emirate. The company received the letter of award for its $463m deal in May.

The deals continued a successful run for South Korean companies working in the Gulf. According to a MEED study published in July, South Korean firms won $17.5bn of oil and gas EPC work in 2009-2010, 38 per cent of the $46bn total of contracts awarded by regional clients.

South Korean firms are expected to bid aggressively on another part of the IRP 2 project, an estimated $700m contract covering the construction of more than 900 kilometres of pipelines, ranging from 10 to 28 inches in size. Takreer has set a 19 July deadline for technical bids and a tentative 25 July cut-off for price proposals on the scheme after a series of delays.