Canada Business Holdings Inc. (CBH), based in Ottawa, Ont., is moving ahead with an investment plan to develop a project for construction of a new low-sulfur fuel oil (LSFO) refinery in Oman.
The proposed 300,000-b/d refinery, which will be built in phases along the Arabian sea, outside the Strait of Hormuz, aims to serve the growing need for LSFO that complies with the International Marine Organization’s (IMO) recently enacted regulations requiring ships to use marine fuels with a sulfur content below 0.5%, CBH said in a statement posted to its website.
The refinery would be equipped with “a unique,” and “proven”—though unidentified—Canadian technology that processes poor-quality fuel into cleaner and higher grades, according to the investment firm.
CBH said it expects the proposed LSFO refinery—which will require a $1.5-billion total investment based on a global fund out of London still open to interested investors—to deliver an ROI of 22%/year.
A timeline for the project, however, was not disclosed.
The early-July 2020 announcement follows CBH’s confirmation in late 2019 that it secured a petroleum refining license and government approval for a 300,000-b/d low sulfur bunkering fuel oil refinery in the Middle East that would be established as a public-private partnership by CBH and its partners, according to a Dec. 30, 2019, release from CBH.
In mid-2019, CBH signed a memorandum of understanding greenlighting the proposed 300,000-b/d refinery project for an estimated investment of $300-million investment, according to a July 5, 2019, release from the firm.
Additional plans?
In approving the firm’s planned 2020 agenda in December 2019, CBH’s board adopted a measure to expand its LSFO refining investments in the Middle East with a proposed second refinery in the region, CBH said in a Dec. 15, 2019, release.
The company, however, has yet to release any details regarding the seemingly approved LSFO refinery.
