Duqm Refinery Wins Middle East Petrochemical Deal of the Year

Muscat: Duqm Refinery’s financing of US$4.6 billion is considered a major project deal in the Gulf region. The Refinery project was recognized by ‘Project Finance International’ (PFI) at a gala awards ceremony held in London last week where it won the “Middle East Petrochemical deal of the year’.

The PFI Awards event is considered to be the most prestigious event in the global project finance calendar and it sees over 900 of the World’s most senior and successful finance professionals gather to celebrate industry excellence.

“Achieving financial close and winning this award is a recognition of several ‘firsts’ that the project has delivered on” said CEO of Duqm Refinery, Dr. Salim Al Huthaili. “This is not only the first cross border project in the Gulf region, but also the first where two government owned Oil companies are partnering on such an initiative”, he further added.

Mubarak Al Naamany, Chief Financial Officer, Duqm Refinery added: “The multi-sourced financing signed for the Project is not only the largest project financing in the Sultanate of Oman, it also includes the largest sharia compliant facility awarded to a green field project in the country provided by a consortium of Islamic financing institutions”. He further added, “Facilities have been provided by 29 reputed financial institutions from 13 countries and guarantees from 3 major ECAs”.

On behalf of Duqm Refinery, the award was received by its Project Director, Jacobus Nieuwenhuijze, who stated at the occasion: “we are grateful for the recognition for the hard work done by our teams and for achieving this important milestone”. He further thanked Duqm Refinery’s shareholders, Kuwait Petroleum International and Oman Oil Company for their continuing support.