The 50:50 DRPIC refining and petchems joint venture of state Oman Oil Company (OOC) and Kuwaiti downstream-focussed counterpart KPI has lined up contractors to build its planned 230,000 b/d export refinery at Duqm. The plant’s location on the Arabian Sea coast in central Oman is suited to both importing crude oil – 65% of crude feedstock, almost 150,000 b/d, will be provided by Kuwait and 35% by Oman – and exporting products, to Asia and Africa in particular (see map).

Oman produced 968,000 b/d of crude and condensate in H1 2017 and exported 809,000 b/d. Products trade in either direction is minimal, though most months see some diesel exports. Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas and Korea’s Daewoo E&C have been selected by DRPIC to build the main process units, under a $2.75bn engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) contract. (CONTINUED - 692 WORDS)