Brazil’s WEG will be the supplier of both medium, and low-voltage equipment for the Duqm refinery in Oman.

A global leader in motor, drive and automation technology, the company signed, in what could be its biggest contract in the oil and gas sector till date, with Técnicas Reunidas (Spain) and Daewoo Engineering and Construction (South Korea), Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) partners in the project.

The company has been contracted to deliver all motors and variable speed drives (VSDs) for the project and will be setting up an exclusive service centre close to the refinery project site, according to media reports.

Luis Gustavo Lopes Iensen, international director of WEG, was quoted as saying, ‘Projects like this require a flawless project management process as purchase orders will be placed by the selected mechanical rotating equipment vendors located worldwide through multiple WEG sales offices. “To guarantee commercial consistency and technical compliance to the specification, a support team has been established at WEG’s HQ in Brazil.”

The 900-hectare refinery project is a joint venture between Oman Oil Company, the government’s investment arm in the oil and gas sector and energy related projects, and Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI), under the Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries Company (DRPIC) name.

The project, which will have a capacity to refine 230,000 barrels per day, is one of the most important industrial projects in the Duqm Special Economic Zone and will transform the zone into one of the key industrial and economic hubs in the Sultanate and a nucleus for petrochemical industries in the future.

The refinery is expected to take four years to with as much as 65 per cent of crude feedstock for the refinery coming from Kuwait, while the remaining 35 per cent to be supplied by the Sultanate.

The first EPC package for building processing units was won by a joint venture of Tecnidas Reunidas and Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co. The second package for developing utilities and offsite facilities was bagged by a joint venture of Petrofac International Limited and Samsung Engineering Co Limited. Also, the third package for offsite facilities was awarded to a joint venture of Saipem SpA and CB&I.