Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas (TR) has won a contract in Oman to undertake the engineering and front-end engineering design (FEED) of a new grassroots bitumen refinery planned at the country’s Sohar Port & Freezone, reported Trade Arabia.

The project developer, Sohar Asphalt, plans for a 30,000b/d capacity designed to process heavy crude into bitumen as the main product and atmospheric and vacuum distillates as by-products. The annual production is estimated to reach 1mt of bitumen and 600,000t of naphtha, straight-run distillates, and vacuum gas oil (VGO), according to Gulf Digital News. The project facilities also include sour water stripper unit, storage, associated utilities, and off sites.

The company added that crude oil will be imported and bitumen and distillate products will be exported by sea.

Meanwhile, the state-owned Oman Oil Company (OOC) plans to progress with the implementation of three other strategic petrochemical ventures by 2017 for a total investment of $1.8b.