Oman’s massive Duqm refinery project is spread over a 9km square-site in Duqm, on the Arabian Sea coast in the Al Wusta Governorate of Oman, approximately 600 km south of the capital city Muscat.
The project is operated by Oman’s OQ and will primarily produce diesel, jet fuel, naphtha and LPG. Its feedstock will comprise 65% Kuwaiti crude and 35% Omani crude.
In April 2023, Oman said its most significant project in the refining and petrochemical industries sector, began operations of the crude oil distillation unit, which indicates operational readiness for all the units of the refinery.
The refinery has a capacity of 230,000 barrels per day, with its design based on a hydrocracking unit and a petroleum coke unit. It will produce liquefied petroleum gas, naphtha, jet fuel, diesel, sulphur, and petroleum coke upon operation.
Key contractors
Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries Co awarded three major engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract worth approximately $5.75 billion for the Duqm refinery in February 2018.
Petrofac and Samsung Engineering JV was awarded an EPC contract worth approximately $2 billion for the utilities and offsites package of the project.
A joint venture between Técnicas Reunidas and Daewoo Engineering & Construction received an EPC contract worth approximately $2.75 billion 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.
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.
