Emirates National Oil Co (Enoc) said  it awarded Foster Wheeler a contract to upgrade its 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) condensate refinery and was seeking $500 million in Islamic financing for the project.

The project will add a 70,000 bpd hydro-treater and a 36,000 bpd crude catalytic reformer as well as sulphur recovery, tail gas treatment unit, and power flash scene generation.
The UK-based office of US firm Foster Wheeler won the engineering, procurement and construction management contract.
Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) was mandated to arrange the $500 million Islamic facility under Ijarah structure. Financial close is scheduled for the first quarter of 2006.
A DIB official said the financing would be at a 70/30 debt to equity proportion. Enoc chief executive Hussain Sultan said that the project would be financed through internal resources and the Ijarah.
Sultan said the upgrade, due to be completed by the end of 2007, would allow the plant to run at full capacity using sour condensate and to produce low-sulphur naptha as well as 1.2 million onnes of high octane reformate for gasoline.
The Jebel Ali refinery in Dubai has two 60,000 bpd splitters, one of which now runs entirely on sweet condensate.
'When we finish this project we will be able to operate both columns with the same type of condensate. This will allow us to operate at full capacity because there has been a shortage of sweet condensate,' Sultan said.