Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic) has tendered the main engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) packages on its New Refinery Project in Fujairah on the east coast of the UAE, according to industry sources.

The company is planning to build a 200,000 barrel-a-day (b/d) facility to meet rising demand for fuels in the UAE and enable the export of oil products from Fujairah’s port.

The EPC work for the estimated $3.5bn project has been divided into two separate packages, says a company planning to bid on the project. The first package covers the process units and the second comprises the utilities, off-sites and infrastructure.

Companies prequalified to bid for the EPC contracts include South Korean groups Daelim Industrial, GS Engineering & Construction, Hyundai Engineering & Construction, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Engineering and SK Engineering & Construction.

Prequalified companies are expected to submit technical bids by the end of 2013 followed by commercial proposals during the first quarter of 2014.

France’s Technip completed the front-end engineering and design (feed) phase of the project earlier this year. The project management consultant (PMC) for the feed phase was Stone & Webster, which Technip acquired from the US-based Shaw Group in 2012.

The refinery is the first stage of a two-phase project to establish an integrated refinery and petrochemicals complex at Fujairah. The second phase will cover a proposed olefins plant and associated facilities to be tendered at a later date.

The Fujairah refinery is strategically placed as it allows the UAE to export refined oil products bypassing the Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the Gulf.

Last year, Ipic completed a 400 kilometre crude pipeline from the Habshan onshore oil hub in Abu Dhabi to Fujairah to allow Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) to export crude from the UAE’s Gulf of Oman coast.

The planned $3.3bn Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline was completed in the second quarter of 2012, after problems during the execution phase caused the project to run overbudget and come on stream more than a year behind schedule.