Oman’s oil minister said a proposed refinery and petrochemical complex on Oman’s south-east coast could cost more than $7 billion to develop.

Oman is considering building the refinery, the country’s third, with a capacity of 200,000 o 300,000 barrels per day, a Ministry of Oil official said in December.
International Oil Daily reported in February that the government had hired Britain-based Jacob’s Engineering to advise on the project and said it could cost as much as $7 billion to develop.
“It could be more than that,” Mohammad bin Hamad Al Rumhi told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Muscat when asked about the $7 billion cost.
“We are discussing the initial feasibility study of the project submitted by our consultants.”
Oman currently has two state-owned refineries - Oman Refinery Company with a capacity of 106,000 barrels per day and Sohar Refinery Company with 116,400 barrels per day capacity.
Meanwhile, the total output of Oman’s oil refinery located at the port of Mina Al-Fahal near the capital Muscat decreased to 824,100 barrels in January 2007 from 2.728 million barrels in January 2006.
The decrease in the total output was attributed to the fact that the state-run Oman Refinery Co closed the refinery on January 10, 2007 for maintenance and expansion with the aim to raise its production capacity to 106,000 barrels per day from 85,000 barrels per day.
The refinery restarted operations in March 2007.
Sohar refinery’s output of 90-octane petrol dropped to 84,400 barrels from 115,300 barrels and its production of super 97-octane petrol fell to 138,000 barrels from 335,700 barrels.
The refinery’s output of jet oil went down to 64,900 barrels from 176,700 barrels and of diesel oil decreased to 195,200 barrels from 589,900 barrels. The output of butane gas was 14,400 barrels, down from 62,500 barrels.