The Duqm refinery is a 230,000 barrels per day (bpd) greenfield oil refinery project under construction in the special economic zone in Duqm, Oman. Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries Company (DRPIC) will be the operator of the refinery.
DRPIC is an equal joint venture between the OQ, a company wholly-owned by the Government of Oman, and Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI), a subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.
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DRPIC issued a notice to the EPC contractors to proceed with the execution of the Duqm refinery project in June 2018, while the financial closure on the project was achieved in December 2018.
The refinery project made overall progress of 68.4% as of August 2020 with the start of operations expected in 2022.
Separately, DRPIC is also planning to build a petrochemical complex in the special economic zone in Duqm. The front-end engineering design (FEED) work for the project is completed and the proposed petrochemicals facility will include a steam cracker unit, as well as production facilities for hydrogen, syngas, methanol, and other petrochemicals.
Location
The Duqm refinery project is spread over a 9km2 -site in Duqm, on the Arabian Sea coast in the Al Wusta Governorate of Oman, approximately 600km south of the capital city Muscat.
Duqm refinery details
The refinery will consist of various process units including hydrocracking, hydro-treating, delayed coking, sulphur recovery, hydrogen generation, and merox treating units.
The facility will utilise a total of eight crude oil storage tanks, with a capacity of 550,000 barrels each, in Ras Markaz. An 80.7km-long, 28in-diameter underground pipeline will be constructed to export the blended crude from the crude oil storage tanks in Ras Markaz to the Duqm refinery.
The project also includes the construction of a product export terminal in the northern part of the Port of Duqm. The export terminal will include storage tanks, sheds, and handling equipment for the petroleum products.
The feedstock for the refinery will be provided by Kuwait and Oman. The products the refinery will include liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), naphtha, diesel, kerosene jet fuel, petroleum coke, and sulphur.
A group of financial institutions and banks agreed to provide project finance of approximately £3.54bn ($4.6bn) for the construction of Duqm refinery in November 2018.
Contractors involved with the Duqm refinery project
Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries Company (DRPIC) awarded three major engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract worth approximately £4.07bn ($5.75bn) for the Duqm refinery in February 2018.
Petrofac is an equal joint-venture partnership with Samsung Engineering was awarded an EPC contract worth approximately £1.42bn ($2bn) for the utilities and offsites package of the project. The utilities and offsites package includes a utility production facility, an oil storage tank, and a sewage treatment facility.
A joint venture between Técnicas Reunidas and Daewoo Engineering & Construction received an EPC contract worth approximately £1.95bn ($2.75bn) for the main refining units.
CB&I in consortium with Saipem was awarded an EPC contract for the offsite facilities including the product export terminal at Duqm Port, a crude tank farm at Ras Markaz, and an 80km-long crude oil pipeline from Ras Markaz to the refinery complex.
CB&I is responsible for EPC works of storage tanks at the export terminal and crude tank farm, while Saipem is in charge of the remaining works. Saipem’s portion of the contract is worth approximately £531m ($750m), while CB&I’s share is valued to be approximately £99m ($140m).
AMEC Foster Wheeler Engineering Consultancy was contracted to provide project management services for the EPC phase of the Duqm refinery in August 2017.
Wood Group was contracted to provide two Terrace Wall double-fired delayed coker heaters in October 2018.
Contracts awarded for the Duqm petrochemical complex
Wood Group was contracted to provide front-end engineering design (FEED) for the Duqm petrochemicals facility in June 2019. The scope of the contract included the NGL extraction facility in central Oman and a 230km-long pipeline from concession areas to the Duqm petrochemicals complex.
OQ Chemicals agreed to license its proprietary technology for the production of ethylene and propylene derivatives to DRPIC in September 2020. The scope of the contract includes providing the process design package for five production units to manufacture propanol, butyraldehyde, neopentyl glycol (NPG), 2-Ethylhexanol (2EH), and 2EH acid.
Lummus Technology was contracted for the technology licensing, process design package, training, and advisory services, as well as proprietary catalyst and equipment supply for the Duqm petrochemical complex in September 2020.
The scope of the contract includes licensing for an ethylene unit, an NGL unit, a butadiene extraction unit, and an MTBE/1-Butene unit.
