Sharjah Refining.

Fal Oil Co., a private firm in Sharjah which is nearly 39 years old, bought a second-hand refinery from Petro-Canada for about $40m in 1995. Fal bought another second-hand refinery from Ultramar of Canada in 1996. It was to re-assemble both into a three-unit plant in the free zone of Hamriyah with a capacity of 75,000 b/d. The plant was to be operational by 1997. But the project was delayed because of financial problems.

In late 2001 it was said that Fal Oil would "soon" sign an agreement with a group of bankers and contractors to get the refining project implemented. Fal Oil said it intended to produce low-sulphur fuels using 75% crude oil and 25% condensate as feedstocks. It was to turn gasoline, gasoil and jet fuel out of condensate to be supplied by BP Sharjah, and to produce heavy kerosine, LPG and bunkers out of crude oil to be imported.

Fal Oil has long operated as a bunkering firm. It has raised its storage capacity to 360,000 tons from 160,000 tons (120,000 tons offshore and 40,000 onshore) and expanded its fleet. Fal lifts its 20,000-22,000 tons/month of gasoil from Caltex Bahrain and Bahrain National Oil Co.

Fal Oil takes over 400,000 tons/year of fuel oil from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iran and majors such as Shell and ExxonMobil. It mainly services ships in Fujairah.

The lubricants sector in Sharjah is the oldest in the UAE. The first lube oil blending plant, on stream in 1976, was built by Sharjah National Lube Oil Co. (Sharlu). It has expanded to 4,000 t/y of blended products.

There is a wide variety of small and medium sized industries in Sharjah, including chemicals producers. But with Abu Dhabi having become a major petrochemical exporter and Dubai having broadened its industrial base, the other UAE emirates account for much less in terms of industrial production.

Sharjah has had a fuels storage facility built in its Hamriyah free zone with a capacity of more than 83,000 CM. It is used to store gasoline, diesel, fuel oil and jet fuel. Tebodin of the Netherlands was the engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) contractor. The client is Abu Dhabi-based ADNOC-FOD, which in mid-2006 signed an agreement with Hamriyah Free Zone Authority for the facility. ADNOC-FOD recently began work on using Hamriyah to import oil products for retailing in the northern emirates.

Q Energy, a JV of Abu Dhabi-based al-Qudra Holding and Lootah, in late 2007 said it was to invest Dh3bn over the next four years to expand its business within the UAE. Q Energy is an EPC contractor for distribution pipelines set up in 1997. It has installed more than 1,000 km of distribution pipelines, which include pipeline networks in Sharjah and Dubai.

Q Energy has serviced more than 150,000 gas customers in the UAE and is looking at markets in Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia for diversification.

ADNOC-FOD is looking at building a gas distribution network in Abu Dhabi and Q Energy might be involved in that as well.