Foster Wheeler wins Libya refinery deal

• Published: 23 October 2008 17:39 GMT
• Author: Perry Williams
• More by this Author
• Last Updated: 23 October 2008 17:55

The US' Foster Wheeler has won a project management deal for the development of a 200,000-barrel-a-day (b/d) refinery in western Libya which stalled earlier this year after bankers pulled out of exploratory talks.

A spokeswoman for Foster Wheeler confirmed an award was made on 23 October for the Zuwara refinery in the region of Melitah.

The deal was signed between Foster Wheeler, the project's promoter Zwara Oil Refining Company (Zorco) and Libyan petroleum trader Oilibya.

Nigeria's Africa Finance Corporation and Citadel Capital of Egypt both decided against investing in the plant earlier in 2008 following initial talks (MEED 15:2:08).

The refinery, located near the Tunisian border, is expected to process local crude into diesel for export to Europe and gasoline for the US, and boost the country's refinery capacity to nearly 600,000 b/d.

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This sounds all too familiar to me.