ORPIC announced five-year expansion strategy worth up to USD6 billion

Oman Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (ORPIC) has announced its investment strategy worth USD5 to 6 billion covering the next five years. Contained in the plan are the expansion of the Sohar Refinery, construction of the Liwa Plastics project, and establishment of a crude oil pipeline from Muscat to Sohar with a length of as much as 280km.
The state-owned firm’s CEO Musab Al Mahrouqi stated, “This is a heavy investment program.”
ORPIC plans to augment the processing capacity of the Sohar Refinery by 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) to make it able to produce 176,000 bpd, and to construct the Liwa Plastics project for producing polypropylene, polyethylene, and benzene with a USD3.6 billion investment. In addition, the company has plans to establish a 280km long pipeline to connect the refineries in Sohar and Muscat.
According to Al Mahruqi, the company’s three projects are heading in the right direction.
“We hope to award the EPC contract for the first phase between Mina Al Fahal refinery and airport within few weeks and the work will start in the first quarter of 2014,” he said regarding the Muscat-Sohar pipeline EPC contract.
On the Liwa Plastics Feed contract, Al Mahruqi said, “We are in the process of selecting technology and hope to award the front end engineering design (FEED) contract before the year-end.” He said, “[the] feed project will take 12 to 14 months to complete.”
The Liwa Plastics project is an integrated venture and will include six elements – a gas withdrawal facility in Fahud, a 300km pipeline on the Fahud and Sohar corridor for gas shipments, a steam cracker unit, an HDPE facility, an LLDPE facility, and a polypropylene facility.
The company’s petrochemical project will facilitate a huge augmentation in their production capability for both fuel and plastics. The company hopes to complete the ambitious project by 2018.
(October 1, 2013)