RIYADH: The Abu Dhabi/Pakistan joint venture partners on the Baluchistan refinery have returned to work on the $5 billion project after it was temporarily put on hold in January 2009, the reliable Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) reported.

A source close to the project told MEED that the project, in which Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic) holds a 74 per cent stake and Pakistan-Arab Refinery Company the other 36 per cent, is ‘back on track’ but that there is no certainty that progress will be sustained due to issues in Pakistan.

Once complete, the plant will have capacity of 200,000-300,000 barrels a day. At least three companies submitted bids in early October to Ipic for the front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract on the project, including Veco, Stone & Webster, and Australia’s WorleyParsons.

The joint venture has yet to award a contract with any of these firms. The joint venture is unsure when a winning bidder will be announced.

Earlier in January Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic) said it will delay or postpone an investment plan for the construction of a refinery in insurgency-hit Balochistan province of Pakistan, one of its mega projects widely publicized, citing ‘procedural anomaly.’ The project was announced several years ago with its inauguration set for 2007, but has been delayed for various technical reasons.

While announcing the delay, the Ipic Managing Director Khadem Al Qubaisi then had told the press: ‘Unfortunately what happened was that many actions that came from Pakistan really disappointed us as shareholders. Because of that we are little bit delaying or postponing this project until we sort out major and fundamental issues.’ However, at least some of the things appear to have been sorted out in the meantime.

The $5 billion refinery with 250,000 barrels per day capacity was originally planned for Balochistan’s port town of Gwadar. However, apparently due to political reasons, the project was later moved to Hub.

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