DMEA: Duqm progress and condensate optimism

Oman is continuing to push forward progress in the developing its Duqm refinery, despite having halted engineering work on the integrated petrochemical facility late last year. The 230,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery is now expected to commence operations late this year or early 2022, and this week a supply conduit was completed to connect the facility with gas processing facilities.

Last week, Qatar loaded its first cargo of condensate for the UAE following the resumption of political ties between the two countries in January. Qatar Petroleum loaded more than 700,000 barrels at Ras Laffan for shipment to Dubai’s ENOC.

Meanwhile, Asian refiners and petrochemicals companies are hopeful that the recent arrival of US Biden administration will lead to an easing of tensions with Iran and therefore opportunities to import Iranian condensate. The Islamic Republic has a condensate export capacity of around 2.6mn bpd. While such a breakthrough appears to be some way off, the economic benefits of condensate from South Pars have Japanese and Korean petrochemicals producers lining up to resume imports.

In Angola, UK-based Gemcorp is reported to have awarded contracts for facilities at the planned $920mn Cabinda plant, which will have a design capacity of 60,000 bpd. The first stage will involve the construction of a crude distillation unit with a capacity of 30,000 bpd, as well as storage tanks that can hold up to 1.2mn barrels of oil, while the second and third stages will involve doubling the plant’s capacity and adding secondary processing facilities.