Tunisia's Energy Ministry awarded Qatar-state owned Qatar Petroleum Company a $2.0 billion refinery deal, ministry and company officials said on Saturday. "We are happy today to sign the agreement with Tunisia to construct a refinery whose capacity is about 150,000 barrels per day", Abdullah Hamad Attiyah, Qatar's vice prime minister and minister of Industry, said at the deal signing ceremony in Tunis.
The Qatari company, in partnership with British Petrofac was selected by the Tunisian ministry to build, own, manage and run the refinery for at least 30 years.
The planned plant will be located in the coastal town of Skhira. Tunisia only has a refinery in the northern city of Bizerte with a capacity of 30,000 barrels per day. It wants to expand its refining potential to satisfy an economy that has been growing by an average of 5 percent over the past decade.