Kuwait Petroleum Corp. subsidiary Kuwait Petroleum International Ltd. (KPI) has entered an agreement with Duqm Refinery & Petrochemical Industries Co. LLC (DRPIC), Muscat, a joint venture of state-owned Oman Oil Co. (OOC) and the UAE’s International Petroleum Investment Co. (IPIC), to cooperate in development of DRPIC’s grassroots 230,000-b/d refinery and petrochemical complex to be built in Oman’s Duqm Special Economic Zone (SEZAD) in Duqm.
As part of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between the companies, KPI has agreed to invest an undisclosed amount in the project, which once completed, will produce transportation fuels and petrochemicals to meet rising demand in Oman and abroad, OOC said.
The MOU follows DRPIC’s goal of attracting investors to help complete the proposed complex following IPIC’s conclusion earlier in the year that the new direction of project to include petrochemicals did not fit its investment strategy, OOC said.
In 2015, DRPIC said it planned to award a total of two EPC contracts for the project by yearend 2016, including a larger package for all equipment and structures required for main crude oil processing units, as well as a second package to cover all supporting installations, utilities, tankage, and buildings (OGJ Online, Jan. 25, 2016).
While the company, which previously awarded a contract to Galfar Engineering & Contracting SAOG, Muscat, to provide site preparation work for the project, has yet to reveal timelines for either construction or possible startup of the integrated refining complex.
Primarily designed to produce and recover naphtha, jet fuel, diesel, and LPG, the refinery will include units for hydrocracking, hydrotreating, delayed coking, sulfur recovery, hydrogen generation, and Merox treating.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].