Duqm Refinery, a joint venture between Oman Oil Company and Kuwait Petroleum International, has awarded three main engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts for the refinery project coming up in the Al Wusta region of Oman, reports said.

The EPC contract for building the proposed 230,000-barrels-per-day capacity refinery’s main processing plants was awarded to a joint venture of Tecnicas Reunidas and Daewoo Engineering & Construction, the Times of Oman report said.

Petrofac in joint venture with Samsung Engineering has won the contract for engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, training and start-up operations of all the utilities and offsites at Duqm. The contract is worth $2 billion and work on the 47-month project will commence shortly, Petrofac said.

The third package for building a product export terminal at the Duqm port, dedicated crude storage tanks in Ras Markaz and an 80-km-long pipeline connecting crude tanks with the refinery was awarded to Italy’s Saipem. The contract is valued at $800 million.

The refinery is expected to start commercial operations in 2021 and will come up in the Duqm Special Economic Zone of the Al Wusta region. Duqm Refinery is seeking a $5-billion syndicated term loan from the overseas markets to fund the $7-billion refinery project.

Meanwhile, Amec Foster Wheeler (AFW) has been appointed as the project management contractor (PMC) for the refinery’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) phase. Its scope of work includes PMC services to be delivered as part of an integrated project management team (IPMT). Duqm Refinery and AFW will jointly establish the IPMT consisting of Duqm Refinery personnel and those of AFW to provide management, administration and supervision of Duqm Refinery contracts related to the project.

The IPMT will monitor the EPC contractor’s performance and verify compliance with the contracts, project specifications, project master schedule and project procedures in accordance with the refinery’s standards and ensure that the contractors perform all work and services to meet their obligations.