SYRIA - The Noor Project.

Noor in early 2007 had announced that its 140,000 b/d refinery plan was to be part of a project to include a network of gasoline retail stations. It said the refinery was to be built in Abu Khashab, north-east of the city of Deir-ez-Zor, over an area of 400 hectares. It then estimated its project to cost over $1.5 bn and to take up to four years to complete.

Noor said the SPC was to supply the refinery with both light and heavy crude oils. The refinery was to create around 1,500 job opportunities. The first memorandum of understanding (MoU) for this project was signed with the Oil and Mineral Resources Ministry in December 2006.

The second MoU was signed in May 2007 by the two parties, under which Noor was to lead a consortium comprising Syrian, Arab and foreign businessmen and corporations for constructing and operating the refinery. The refinery will depend on Syrian light and heavy crude oils and Kirkuk crude to be imported from Iraq in the future. According to this MoU, Noor was to found the project company with $1.5 bn capital and commit itself to the relevant international criteria of safety, health and the environment of the petroleum industry.

Apart from the feasibility study for the refinery being done by Wood Mackenzie of the UK, under a contract signed in November 2007, Noor has hired two consulting firms for the proposed retail network. These are Protech Energy LLC of Syria and the Kuwaiti Project Development Consultancy (PDC), an affiliate of Noor.

Noor was to build 15 gasoline stations, most of which will be located in the Damascus countryside, and renovate 35 existing ones, which are located in both Damascus and the Damascus countryside. According to studies by the two consulting firms, each station will spread over 4,000 square metres and will include a repair and washing area, a mini-market and a small restaurant. Around 1,000 people will be employed in the 50 stations.

Currently, there are 19 private and six state-owned gasoline stations in Damascus and 135 private and one state-owned (in Damascus Airport) stations in Damascus countryside. In 2006, there was a 10% increase in the rate of gasoline stations[acute accent] sales in Damascus city. This rate reached 28.66% in the Damascus countryside.

Noor in the autumn of 2007 obtained a licence for setting up a Takaful insurance company in Syria with the capital of 1.5 billion Syrian pounds ($30m). The company was also to open an Islamic bank in Syria.

The Banias Refinery Co. (BRC) is working on a project to increase the plant's yield of low-sulphur fuels. BRC in 2006 embarked on a project to have a 400,000 tons/year grassroots bitumen plant built at its complex under an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract.

This was then announced as part of a $400m modernisation plan for the refinery, which had been under consideration for several years by the government. The project included installation of a desulphurisation unit, a visbreaker, a hydrocracker and related facilities to improve product quality. The project was also to include installation of a vacuum distillation unit (VDU) and a crude distillation unit (CDU) to improve the production of higher-quality gasoil/diesel. Beicip Franlab of France had done the front-end engineering and design (FEED) work.

The client for this plan is the Oil & Mineral Resources Ministry, acting on behalf of BRC. The project was to be funded by BRC, but there was an option for the successful contractor, or contractors, to arrange financing.

Homs Refinery Co. (HRC) runs the country's first oil refining plant which was built in 1959. The 110,000 b/d refinery was designed to handle both heavy and light crude oils. This is to have new VDUs.

HRC in February 2006 invited qualified contractors to bid for a $20m EPC contract by or before April 25 of that year. The bid deadline was subsequently extended to May 25, 2006. The contract called for the supply and installation of six VDUs. The bidders included TechnoExport (TEX) of Prague and Namvaran Engineering and Management of Iran. They submited technical and commercial proposals. Namvaran did the FEED work on this. But no progress on the project has been reported since then.