DUBAI — A 200,000-barrel-per-day refinery paired with deepwater port facilities, crude storage and marine export terminals is moving toward a final site decision, with the US-Saudi consortium behind the $5 billion project expecting to name a host country by the end of 2026.
The project is anchored by MERA Oil and backed by Texas-based MWG Enterprises, India’s Patel Family Office and Saudi industrial group AHQ Group. Three years of site evaluation across the Gulf have narrowed the search to three locations, all positioned outside the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint through which roughly a quarter of global crude exports currently pass. The consortium has signaled it remains open to proposals from other qualifying Gulf jurisdictions, provided they can meet the project’s infrastructure, logistics and timeline demands.
Marc W. Gunderson, founder of MWG Enterprises, described where the process now stands. “Three years of evaluation across the region and two years of detailed engagement with three outstanding locations have brought us to a clear decision point,” he said. “The sponsor partnership is assembled, the development concept and capital strategy are defined, and we are now choosing our host.”
The facility’s location beyond the Strait of Hormuz is central to its design logic. By operating outside this strategically sensitive passage, the complex is intended to guarantee uninterrupted access to international shipping lanes while serving as a long-term industrial platform for refining, logistics and energy exports.
A pre-feasibility study examining refinery configuration, logistics, capital requirements and phased construction has reached an advanced stage. The first phase will require up to $5 billion in capital and incorporate energy-efficient refining technologies alongside advanced emissions-control systems. The consortium is also exploring future integration of sustainable aviation fuel co-processing and carbon-management technologies.
Once a host country is selected, the partnership moves into detailed engineering and final site due diligence. The sponsors are targeting mechanical completion of the first phase by the end of 2029, with commissioning and commercial operations to follow. The facility will occupy between 1,200 and 1,500 acres of port-connected industrial land and is designed to produce high-specification middle distillates, including ultra-low sulphur diesel and jet fuel, for export to the United States, the Atlantic Basin, the Gulf region and other international markets.
The employment projections attached to the project are substantial. Preliminary estimates put direct job creation at up to 3,000 positions across construction, commissioning and operations, with approximately 15,000 indirect and induced jobs flowing through local suppliers, engineering services and supporting industries. Abdulmalik Alqahtani, chief executive of AHQ Group, framed the ambition plainly. “More than seven decades of industrial work across the Kingdom have taught us what a project of this kind should leave behind for its host: jobs, local suppliers, technical skill and industrial capacity that endures,” he said.
The project reflects a wider regional push to strengthen downstream industries and reduce dependence on Strait of Hormuz transit routes. According to the GCC Statistical Centre, the six Gulf states exported approximately 11.5 million barrels of crude oil daily in 2024, representing roughly a quarter of global crude exports. Gulf producers have increasingly sought to diversify export infrastructure and build refining capacity as part of longer-term economic diversification strategies.
Financing is expected to combine sponsor equity with sovereign and institutional investment, international project finance, export-credit support and Shariah-compliant financing structures. Meanwhile, the consortium is conducting parallel discussions with crude suppliers from within and outside the Gulf, with definitive feedstock agreements expected to advance once the host country selection is confirmed.
Whether the three candidate locations can satisfy the project’s infrastructure and logistics requirements on the timeline the sponsors have set will determine whether mechanical completion by late 2029 remains achievable, or becomes the first deadline to slip.