Over 98 percent construction work at Duqm Refinery project completed

Muscat: The final work procedure of the Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries Project in the Special Economic Zone at Duqm continues to progress, with the construction work rate exceeding 98 percent. In addition, the refinery's soft operations progress has reached more than 65 percent.

The trial operation includes testing the readiness of the refinery facilities, which includes three packages. The first deals with the main processing units of the refinery, while the second package consists of facilities and services supporting operations. The third package includes storage and export facilities for liquid and bulk petroleum materials in the port of Duqm and private crude oil storage facilities. With the refinery in the centre head.

During the past months, Ras Markaz crude oil tanks received more than 3 million barrels of Omani and Kuwaiti crude oil, which were later pumped from Ras Markaz to the refinery complex in Duqm through an 80-kilometre crude oil pipeline.

The trial operations also included export of the first shipments of naphtha through the storage and export berth in the port of Duqm. Naphtha is one of the main products of the refinery for global markets, which paves the way for the start of exporting other products of the refinery such as diesel, aviation fuel, liquefied petroleum gas and other energy products to regional and global markets.

The project is distinguished by its important strategic location at the crossroads of global trade lines, which will contribute to promote the export of Omani and Kuwaiti energy products to global markets. The project is also one of the largest investment projects in the refinery and petrochemical sector between the two Gulf countries.

Furthermore, the project will contribute to increasing the refining capacity of the Sultanate of Oman by 230,000 barrels per day, which will lead to an increase in the total refining capacity of the Sultanate to 500,000 barrels per day of a mixture of Omani and Kuwaiti crude oil.

The project contributes to supporting the local added value in the Sultanate of Oman, as 20 percent of the project value was allocated to support local small and medium enterprises, with a total amount of two billion dollars.

The Duqm Refinery project, after its completion, which is a joint strategic project between the Sultanate of Oman and the State of Kuwait, will provide the economies of the two brotherly countries with financial resources that will contribute to the consolidation of brotherly ties and the promotion of prosperity for the two countries.