Tuesday, Jul 31, 2007
The engineering, procurement and construction contract is planned to be awarded by year-end, the official added.
YOGC plans to build crude storage tanks with capacity of 3.3 million barrels and an offshore loading facility that will help the country export oil from its Marib fields, located inland.
The project's cost is estimated at $180 million, higher than earlier projections of $135 million-$165 million, the official said, due to rising cost for raw materials, equipment and labor.
The Ras Issa terminal will replace an existing offshore floating storage and offloading facility and will allow YOGC to load very-large crude carriers, or VLCCs, at a rate of 100,000 barrels an hour, according to YOGC prequalification documents seen by Dow Jones Newswires.
The successful bidder for the contract will also be required to build tanks for bunker fuel, diesel oil and ballast water as well as power and desalination plants, the documents say.
The onshore storage units will be linked via subsea pipeline with a single point mooring system located about eight kilometers offshore, which will also be built by the contractor, according to the documents.
Yemen, whose per capita gross domestic product was below $900 last year, produced an average of 390,000 barrels a day of crude in 2006, 9% less than in the previous year, according to the latest BP Statistical Review.
The country's proved oil reserves stood at 2.9 billion barrels at the end of the same year, according to BP.
-By Oliver Klaus, Dow Jones Newswires, +9714 364 4961 Oliver.Klaus@dowjones.com
Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
31-07-07 1018GMT
