Zwara Oil Refinery Co. Ltd. (ZORCO), which is owned by Tamoil Africa Holdings Ltd., plans to build a 200,000-barrel-per-stream-day (bpsd) oil refinery at Mellita, which is near Zwara in northwestern Libya close to the Tunisian border.

The estimated $4-billion refinery will feature a state-of-the-art facility for producing premium-quality gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel with minimal fuel oil production. In addition, the plan calls for related utilities, offsites, and marine facilities.

Foster Wheeler Ltd. on Oct. 30, 2008, announced that its Milan-based subsidiary Foster Wheeler Italiana S.p.A. has won a contract from ZORCO for consultancy and project management services for the planned refinery. The consultant will do the following under the contract: optimize the refinery configuration, select the licensors and the front-end engineering design (FEED), including preparing cost estimate; prepare and tender couments for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) phase; assist ZORCO in selecting EPC contractor(s); and act as project manager during EPC phase.

According to Foster Wheeler, the projected completion date for the ZORCO Crude Oil Refinery Project is 2014.