‘Work on refinery expansion to start in 2015’

AMMAN — The Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company (JPRC) is expected to start expansion work to increase production in 2015, according to JPRC CEO Abdul Karim Alaween.

A feasibility study on the expansion project was recently completed and will be referred to the JPRC board for approval before the end of this month, Alaween told The Jordan Times earlier this week.

When the study is approved, the JPRC will ask a financial consultant to start looking into best options to finance the expansion project, which is expected to cost between $1 billion and $1.5 billion, he said.

“The expansion project seeks to increase refinery capacity to 150,000 barrels per day. It might be 100,000 or 120,000 barrels per day, we are still looking into this… We will study the needs of the market and decide on the final capacity increase,” Alaween added.

Currently, the refinery process about 70,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

“The completion of the feasibility study is a major step towards the start of expansion work. We will resort to borrowing to complete the project,” the JPRC CEO said.

“I expect that we will see actual work on the ground to expand the refinery in 2015,” he added.

Energy Minister Mohammad Hamed said the expansion of the refinery is fundamental to meet the rising demand on energy and fuel in the Kingdom.

The minister noted that the grace period given to the JPRC by the government for the expansion project ends in May 2019.