UAE – Mubasher: Fujairah-based Brooge Petroleum and Gas Investment Co (BPGIC) and Dubai’s Sahara Energy Resources DMCC have signed a partnership agreement to build an oil refinery, which is the first of its kind in the MENA region, to produce bunker fuel.
The planned oil refinery will be set up with a capacity of 250,000 barrel per day (bpd) in the emirate of Fujairah in compliance with the regulations of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) 2020, the state-run Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported.
The IMO 2020 regulations will require ships to use fuels with a sulphur content below 0.5% as of early 2020.
The first phase of the facility is set for completion by the first quarter of 2020, the two companies revealed.
Nicolaas Paardenkooper, CEO of BPGIC, said: “The new facility will contribute to bolstering the growing status of the Emirate of Fujairah in the oil and gas industry and help meet the growing demand for shipping fuel that complies with the new international laws on capping sulfur content in shipping fuels, as most of current shipping fuel contains up to 3.5% sulphur.”
Paardenkooper also highlighted the successful listing of BPGIC on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange which took part in April in a bid to boost investor confidence in the company and its expansion plans.
For his part, Wale Ajibade, executive director of Sahara Group, said that the refinery’s unit in Fujairah would make Sahara Energy DMCC a major supplier of IMO 2020 compliant products in the UAE as well as in African, Asian, and European markets.
The deal was signed in Abu Dhabi in the presence of Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo, secretary general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
