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U.S.-based engineering consultancy KBR is expected to sign a contract to provide Project Management Consultancy (PMC) services for the Southern Refinery project in Libya next month, the official news agency reported on Tuesday.
KBR, which already has a strong presence in the Middle East, will formally sign the contract in early February with Zallaf, the exploration and production subsidiary of Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC), a report by the Libyan News Agency (LANA) said.
KBR will set up a subsidiary in Libya to provide PMC and technical support for the planned 30,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in the southern Libyan desert, the report noted.
Zallaf and KBR agreed to finalise the deal after talks in Tripoli, the report said, adding that KBR is awaiting official approval of its subsidiary.
Zallaf had announced in late 2025 that it had launched a project to build the refinery in the desert oasis town of Ubari within expansion plans covering refining and crude output.
It noted that the refinery would produce propane and butane, gasoline, kerosene/jet fuel, diesel and tanker fuel. The plant has access to many major crude oil and product pipelines and uses purpose-built trucks, it added.
Libya, which is a member of OPEC but is excluded from output quotas, has five main oil refineries, the largest of which is Ras Lanuf on the northern Mediterranean coast, with a pre-conflict capacity of 220,000 bpd.
Libya produces nearly 1.4 million bpd of crude, more than triple its output five years ago, NOC said on its website.
The north African Arab nation has embarked on plans to rehabilitate its hydrocarbon sector. Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Al-Dbeibeh revealed at the weekend that Tripoli has signed a long-term development deal with France’s TotalEnergies and US-headquartered ConocoPhillips to boost the production capacity of the Waha oil project, one of the largest in the country.
The deal includes an investment of more than $20 billion over 25 years that will increase capacity by up to 850,000 bpd.
(Writing by N Saeed; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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