Samsung Engineering and Omani Gov’t Agreed to End Their Dispute

The International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) of the World Bank announced on January 28 that Samsung Engineering and the Omani government recently agreed to end their dispute.

Back in 2015, Samsung Engineering asked the ICSID to act as an arbitrator in the dispute against the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Oil & Gas of Oman.

Earlier in 2013, Samsung Engineering was selected as the preferred bidder of a US$1 billion plant construction project of Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (ORPIC). However, they failed to sign a final contract due to different opinions regarding the period of construction and so on. Then, ORPIC exercised a bond call and Samsung Engineering had to suffer an estimated loss of 25 billion won (US$22.5 million).

However, the two parties agreed to bury the hatchet last year and signed a new plant construction project. Launched by Duqm Refinery & Petrochemical Industries Company (DRPIC), a joint venture of Oman and Kuwait, the project is to build an oil refinery plant with a daily capacity of 230,000 barrels in the Duqm Special Economic Zone located to the south of Muscat, the capital city of Oman. The total value of the contract is approximately US$2 billion.